The East African
Tuesday December 15 2020
Instead of filtering out disinformation and hate speech online, the algorithms trained to identify these may instead amplify the biases. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
Summary
While application of algorithms may enhance efficiency, especially in the use of big data, its opaqueness makes it very difficult to determine or assess the extent of correctness, fairness in social application with varied contextual realities.
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A few days ago, my colleague Brian Kagoro, a renowned pan-Africanist, and his fellow Zimbabwean political activists had their Twitter accounts suspended arbitrarily. This set off frantic efforts to seek answers from Twitter but no concrete answers were given. Instead, their accounts were restored as arbitrarily as they had been suspended.