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Tall-Log-1955 t1_iu1u7p6 wrote

Reply to comment by myspicename in Facebook Segments Ads by Race and Age Based on Photos | Ads with teenage girls are mostly directed at men over 55, while white people see fewer ads with Black faces, a new study finds. by chrisdh79

I think that if the reason is that non-white people did not engage with the ad (because they are not interested in it), then yes it is okay

If the reason is that some property developer wants to keep out non-whites then it is not okay.

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myspicename t1_iu1zh5f wrote

If the algo doesn't advertise to non white people, how would we know the problem is engagement. I'm trying to lead y'all through a line of logic that ends with the idea that outsourcing racist activities to an algo isn't not racist.

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Tall-Log-1955 t1_iu26rpu wrote

These algorithms don't have that problem because they show ads to everyone in small amounts. Then whichever demographic/group engages at the highest rate, they show to more people like that.

You can read how they work here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-armed_bandit

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myspicename t1_iu26zou wrote

Ok so generalizing from a small sample size and then using race or race proxy demographics. Do y'all seriously not see the issue?

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Tall-Log-1955 t1_iu2eaz5 wrote

If race is actually predictive of interest in a product, I don't think it's that bad. Is it sexist to less often show tampon ads to men? Is it ageist to less often show ads for toys to senior citizens?

If people of a given race are genuinely not interested in a product, I don't think it harms them to show them the ads less often.

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myspicename t1_iu2egdv wrote

I think for many consumer products, like hair care or tampons, this is true. It becomes insidious when it's real estate, education, accommodations, etc if unchecked.

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