Resistance and refusal to algorithmic harms: Varieties of ‘knowledge projects’
Publication Date
2022-05Journal Title
Media International Australia
ISSN
1329-878X
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
183
Issue
1
Pages
90-106
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Ganesh, M. I., & Moss, E. (2022). Resistance and refusal to algorithmic harms: Varieties of ‘knowledge projects’. Media International Australia, 183 (1), 90-106. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x221076288
Abstract
<jats:p> Industrial, academic, activist, and policy research and advocacy movements formed around resisting ‘machine bias’, promoting ‘ethical AI’, and ‘fair ML’ have discursive implications for what constitutes harm, and what resistance to algorithmic influence itself means, and is deeply connected to which actors makes epistemic claims about harm and resistance. We present a loose categorization of kinds of resistance to algorithmic systems: a dominant mode of resistance as ‘filtering up’ and being translated into design fixes by Big Tech; and advocacy and scholarship which bring a critical frame of lived experiences and scholarship around algorithmic systems as socio-technical entities. Three recent cases delve into how Big Tech responds to harms documented by marginalized groups; these highlight how harms are valued differently. Finally, we identify modes of refusal that recognize the limits of Big Tech's resistance; built on practices of feminist organizing, decoloniality, and New-Luddism, they encourage a rethinking of the place and value of technologies in mediating human social and personal life; and not just how they can deterministically ‘improve’ social relations. </jats:p>
Keywords
Special Issue Articles, Algorithmic, resistance, refusal, harms, epistemology, big-tech, design, bias
Identifiers
10.1177_1329878x221076288
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x221076288
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/336657
Rights
Licence:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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