An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Conversation: Twitter has on various occasions been accused of political bias, with politicians or commentators alleging Twitter’s algorithm amplifies their opponents’ voices, or silences their own. In this climate, Twitter commissioned a study to understand whether their algorithm may be biased towards a certain political ideology. While Twitter publicized the findings of the research in 2021, the study has now been published in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS.

The study looked at a sample of 4% of all Twitter users who had been exposed to the algorithm (46,470,596 unique users). It also included a control group of 11,617,373 users who had never received any automatically recommended tweets in their feeds. This wasn’t a manual study, whereby, say, the researchers recruited volunteers and asked them questions about their experiences. It wouldn’t have been possible to study such a large number of users that way. Instead, a computer model allowed the researchers to generate their findings. […] The researchers found that in six out of the seven countries (Germany was the exception), the algorithm significantly favored the amplification of tweets from politically right-leaning sources. Overall, the amplification trend wasn’t significant among individual politicians from specific parties, but was when they were taken together as a group. The starkest contrasts were seen in Canada (the Liberals’ tweets were amplified 43%, versus those of the Conservatives at 167%) and the UK (Labour’s tweets were amplified 112%, while the Conservatives’ were amplified at 176%).

In acknowledgement of the fact that tweets from elected officials represent only a small portion of political content on Twitter, the researchers also looked at whether the algorithm disproportionately amplifies news content from any particular point on the ideological spectrum. To this end, they measured the algorithmic amplification of 6.2 million political news articles shared in the US. To determine the political leaning of the news source, they used two independently curated media bias-rating datasets. Similar to the results in the first part of the study, the authors found that content from right-wing media outlets is amplified more than that from outlets at other points on the ideological spectrum. This part of the study also found far-left-leaning and far-right-leaning outlets were not significantly amplified compared with politically moderate outlets. The authors of the study point out that the algorithms “might be influenced by the way different political groups operate,” notes The Conversation. “So for example, some political groups might be deploying better tactics and strategies to amplify their content on Twitter.”

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Source: Slashdot – Twitter’s Algorithm Favors the Political Right, Study Finds

Eighty-four percent of app developers support an antitrust bill aimed at curtailing the market power of Apple’s and Google’s app stores, according to a poll (PDF) from the Coalition for App Fairness released Monday. The Hill reports: The industry group for app developers is pushing Congress to pass the Open App Markets Act, a bipartisan Senate bill that would block app stores from favoring their own in-house apps in searches, requiring developers to use their payment systems and preventing users from downloading apps from third-party stores. Developers surveyed by the group complained about exorbitant fees charged by the largest app stores — Apple charges a 30 percent commission on app store sales for large developers — and expressed how they’d experienced difficulty getting their apps featured or accepted by app stores. Just 13 percent of app developers surveyed oppose the bill. […] The poll, conducted by ClearPath Strategies, surveyed 190 app developers in 11 states between December 2021 and January 2022. The margin of error is plus or minus 7.11 percentage points.

“The evidence is clear — app developers want the Open App Markets Act to pass so that they can have the opportunity to compete in a fair digital marketplace,” Meghan DiMuzio, executive director of the Coalition for App Fairness, said in a statement. “For too long, developers have been harmed by gatekeepers’ monopolistic practices, and consumers have suffered from less choice and innovation.”

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Source: Slashdot – 8 In 10 App Developers Back Measure To Rein In Google and Apple, Poll Finds

The New York Times says it has purchased the viral word-guessing game Wordle for “an undisclosed price in the low seven figures.” The newspaper says it’ll remain “free to play for new and existing players, and no changes will be made to its gameplay.” From the report: Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, created the game as a gift for his partner. It was released to the public in October, and it exploded in popularity in a matter of months. Ninety people played the game on Nov. 1, Mr. Wardle said. Nearly two months later, 300,000 people played it. To play the game, people are required to guess a predetermined five-letter word in six tries. The yellow and green squares indicate that the Wordle player has guessed a correct letter, or a combined correct letter and placement. The buzz around the game can be attributed to the spoiler-free scoring grid that allows players to share their Wordle wins across social media, group chats and more. The game’s creator, Josh Wardle, announced the sale in a tweet, writing: “If you’ve followed along with the story of Wordle, you’ll know that NYT games play a big part in its origins and so this step feels very natural to me.”

He adds: “I’ve long admired the NYT’s approach to their games and the respect with which they treat their players. Their values are aligned with mine on these matters and I’m thrilled that they will be stewards of the game moving forward.”

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Source: Slashdot – The New York Times Purchases Wordle