Where the earth is flat and 9/11 is an inside job : A comparative algorithm audit of conspiratorial information in web search results

Lade...
Vorschaubild
Dateien
Urman_2-qn72ejj9ld6w5.pdf
Urman_2-qn72ejj9ld6w5.pdfGröße: 3.73 MBDownloads: 618
Datum
2022
Autor:innen
Urman, Aleksandra
Makhortykh, Mykola
Herausgeber:innen
Kontakt
ISSN der Zeitschrift
Electronic ISSN
ISBN
Bibliografische Daten
Verlag
Schriftenreihe
Auflagebezeichnung
ArXiv-ID
Internationale Patentnummer
Link zur Lizenz
Angaben zur Forschungsförderung
Projekt
Open Access-Veröffentlichung
Open Access Hybrid
Core Facility der Universität Konstanz
Gesperrt bis
Titel in einer weiteren Sprache
Forschungsvorhaben
Organisationseinheiten
Zeitschriftenheft
Publikationstyp
Zeitschriftenartikel
Publikationsstatus
Published
Erschienen in
Telematics and Informatics. Elsevier. 2022, 72, 101860. ISSN 0736-5853. eISSN 1879-324X. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2022.101860
Zusammenfassung

Web search engines are important online information intermediaries that are frequently used and highly trusted by the public despite multiple evidence of their outputs being subjected to inaccuracies and biases. One form of such inaccuracy, which so far received little scholarly attention, is the presence of conspiratorial information, namely pages promoting conspiracy theories. We address this gap by conducting a comparative algorithm audit to examine the distribution of conspiratorial information in search results across five search engines: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and Yandex. Using a virtual agent-based infrastructure, we systematically collect search outputs for six conspiracy theory-related queries (“flat earth”, “new world order”, “qanon”, “9/11”, “illuminati”, “george soros”) across three locations (two in the US and one in the UK) and two waves (March and May 2021). We find that all search engines except Google consistently displayed conspiracy-promoting results and returned links to conspiracy-dedicated websites, with variations across queries. Most conspiracy-promoting results came from social media and conspiracy-dedicated websites while conspiracy-debunking information was shared by scientific websites and legacy media. These observations are consistent across different locations and time periods highlighting the possibility that some engines systematically prioritize conspiracy-promoting content.

Zusammenfassung in einer weiteren Sprache
Fachgebiet (DDC)
004 Informatik
Schlagwörter
Web search, Conspiracy theories, Algorithm auditing, Information distribution, Political communication
Konferenz
Rezension
undefined / . - undefined, undefined
Zitieren
ISO 690URMAN, Aleksandra, Mykola MAKHORTYKH, Roberto ULLOA, Juhi KULSHRESTHA, 2022. Where the earth is flat and 9/11 is an inside job : A comparative algorithm audit of conspiratorial information in web search results. In: Telematics and Informatics. Elsevier. 2022, 72, 101860. ISSN 0736-5853. eISSN 1879-324X. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2022.101860
BibTex
@article{Urman2022-08Where-58305,
  year={2022},
  doi={10.1016/j.tele.2022.101860},
  title={Where the earth is flat and 9/11 is an inside job : A comparative algorithm audit of conspiratorial information in web search results},
  volume={72},
  issn={0736-5853},
  journal={Telematics and Informatics},
  author={Urman, Aleksandra and Makhortykh, Mykola and Ulloa, Roberto and Kulshrestha, Juhi},
  note={Article Number: 101860}
}
RDF
<rdf:RDF
    xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/"
    xmlns:dspace="http://digital-repositories.org/ontologies/dspace/0.1.0#"
    xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
    xmlns:void="http://rdfs.org/ns/void#"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#" > 
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/58305">
    <dc:contributor>Makhortykh, Mykola</dc:contributor>
    <dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/42"/>
    <dcterms:title>Where the earth is flat and 9/11 is an inside job : A comparative algorithm audit of conspiratorial information in web search results</dcterms:title>
    <dc:creator>Urman, Aleksandra</dc:creator>
    <dc:contributor>Kulshrestha, Juhi</dc:contributor>
    <dc:contributor>Urman, Aleksandra</dc:contributor>
    <dc:creator>Kulshrestha, Juhi</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Ulloa, Roberto</dc:creator>
    <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/"/>
    <dspace:isPartOfCollection rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/42"/>
    <bibo:uri rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/58305"/>
    <dc:creator>Makhortykh, Mykola</dc:creator>
    <dcterms:issued>2022-08</dcterms:issued>
    <dcterms:rights rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"/>
    <dcterms:hasPart rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/58305/1/Urman_2-qn72ejj9ld6w5.pdf"/>
    <void:sparqlEndpoint rdf:resource="http://localhost/fuseki/dspace/sparql"/>
    <dspace:hasBitstream rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/58305/1/Urman_2-qn72ejj9ld6w5.pdf"/>
    <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2022-08-16T12:22:04Z</dc:date>
    <dc:contributor>Ulloa, Roberto</dc:contributor>
    <dc:rights>Attribution 4.0 International</dc:rights>
    <dcterms:available rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2022-08-16T12:22:04Z</dcterms:available>
    <dcterms:abstract xml:lang="eng">Web search engines are important online information intermediaries that are frequently used and highly trusted by the public despite multiple evidence of their outputs being subjected to inaccuracies and biases. One form of such inaccuracy, which so far received little scholarly attention, is the presence of conspiratorial information, namely pages promoting conspiracy theories. We address this gap by conducting a comparative algorithm audit to examine the distribution of conspiratorial information in search results across five search engines: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and Yandex. Using a virtual agent-based infrastructure, we systematically collect search outputs for six conspiracy theory-related queries (“flat earth”, “new world order”, “qanon”, “9/11”, “illuminati”, “george soros”) across three locations (two in the US and one in the UK) and two waves (March and May 2021). We find that all search engines except Google consistently displayed conspiracy-promoting results and returned links to conspiracy-dedicated websites, with variations across queries. Most conspiracy-promoting results came from social media and conspiracy-dedicated websites while conspiracy-debunking information was shared by scientific websites and legacy media. These observations are consistent across different locations and time periods highlighting the possibility that some engines systematically prioritize conspiracy-promoting content.</dcterms:abstract>
    <dc:language>eng</dc:language>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
Interner Vermerk
xmlui.Submission.submit.DescribeStep.inputForms.label.kops_note_fromSubmitter
Kontakt
URL der Originalveröffentl.
Prüfdatum der URL
Prüfungsdatum der Dissertation
Finanzierungsart
Kommentar zur Publikation
Allianzlizenz
Corresponding Authors der Uni Konstanz vorhanden
Internationale Co-Autor:innen
Universitätsbibliographie
Ja
Begutachtet
Ja
Diese Publikation teilen