The Algorithmic State of Mind: A Human Rights Frame for Governing News Recommendation (Information Technology and Law Series, 42)

This book conceptualises different ‘news recommendation’ practices from a legal perspective and establishes ways forward for dealing with them.In recent years, online news distributors (online news media, social media, search engines and news aggregators) started deploying algorithmic ‘recommender systems’ to curate users’ news overviews.Such systems automatically (de)select and (de)prioritise items to be displayed in user interfaces, thus deciding which ones are visible and in what order.The ways algorithms shape people’s online informational environments has since a decade led to debate.According to some, these technologies threaten democracy, as they may create filter bubbles or push divisive, polarising and extremist content, while others see advantages in recommendation tools that could bring various matters to light or help navigate a potential online information overload.Discussions about how algorithms affect online flows of information are particularly pertinent where news rec