It’s time to end the secrecy and opacity of social media

[Commentary] By the time you finish reading this article, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter will have made billions of decisions about what you and hundreds of millions of others will see next. Each time you log into a social media platform, its algorithms — sophisticated mathematical models designed by a few thousand engineers in Northern California — decide what information you should consume. These decisions have deep repercussions on us as individuals and as a society, whether it’s by enabling revolutions that topple dictators, by feeding us fake news and micro-targeted advertisements to manipulate election results or by preying on our insecurities to fuel mental health crises. The time has come to end the opacity and secrecy surrounding social media. If social media platforms are truly committed to being the productive, responsible and ethical force in society they have the potential to be, there are crucial steps they must take. 

[Wael Ghonim is an Internet activist and a Fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. Jake Rashbass is a Frank Knox Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.]