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Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism Paperback – Illustrated, February 20, 2018
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A revealing look at how negative biases against women of color are embedded in search engine results and algorithms
Run a Google search for “Black girls”―what will you find? “Big Booty” and other sexually explicit terms are likely to come up as top search terms. But, if you type in “white girls,” the results are radically different. The suggested porn sites and un-moderated discussions about “why Black women are so sassy” or “why Black women are so angry” presents a disturbing portrait of Black womanhood in modern society.
In Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem; Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color.
Through an analysis of textual and media searches as well as extensive research on paid online advertising, Noble exposes a culture of racism and sexism in the way discoverability is created online. As search engines and their related companies grow in importance―operating as a source for email, a major vehicle for primary and secondary school learning, and beyond―understanding and reversing these disquieting trends and discriminatory practices is of utmost importance.
An original, surprising and, at times, disturbing account of bias on the internet, Algorithms of Oppression contributes to our understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in the 21st century.
- Print length248 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateFebruary 20, 2018
- Dimensions6 x 0.56 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101479837245
- ISBN-13978-1479837243
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Nobles thesis is a new tune in the ever-louder chorus that, in light of the dominance of the big tech companies, is singing for 'protections and attention that work in service of the public'." ― The Financial Times
"[P]resents convincing evidence of the need for closer scrutiny and regulation of search engine[s].A thought-provoking, well-researched work." ― Library Journal
"Noble argues...that the web is ...a machine of oppression...[Her] central insight - that nothing about internet search and retrieval is political neutral - is made...through the accumulation of alarming and disturbing examples. [She] makes a compelling case that pervasive racism online inflames racist violence IRL." ― Los Angeles Review of Books
"A distressing account of algorithms run amok." ― Kirkus Reviews
"Algorithms of Oppressionis a wakeup call to bring awareness to the biases of the internet, and should motivate all concerned people to ask why those biases exist, and who they benefit." ― New York Journal of Books
"Noble offers a compelling look into the structure of digitized informationmost of it driven by advertising revenueand how it perpetuates racist assumptions and ideologies." ― Pacific Standard
"Noble makes a strong case that present technologies and search engines are not just imperfect, but they enact actual harm to people and communities." ― Popmatters.com
"50 Best Book of 2018 So Far, "There's been a growing swell of concern in the academic community about the stranglehold that commercial (for-profit) search engines have over access to information in our world. Safiya Umoja Noble builds on this body of work...to demonstrate that search engines, and in particular Google, are not simply imperfect machines, but systems designed by humans in ways that replicate the power structures of the western countries where they are built, complete with all the sexism and racism that are built into those structures." ― Popmatters.com
"Noble demolishes the popular assumption that Google is a values-free tool with no agenda...She astutely questions the wisdom of turning so much of our data and intellectual capital over to a corporate monopoly.Nobles study should prompt some soul-searching about our reliance on commercial search engines and about digital social equity." ― STARRED Booklist
"Nobles incisive work centers around the fact that, at present, Googles search engine promotes structural inequality through multiple examples and that this is not just a & design problem but an inherent political problem that has shaped the entirety of twentieth-century technology design. In addition to her illustrative examples and incisive criticism, Noble offers practicable policy solutions." ― Metascience
"In Algorithms of Oppression, [Noble] offers her readers a lens to discover, analyze, and critique the search engine algorithms that perpetuate stereotypes and racist beliefs[This] book will be of great interest to academic librarians who teach information literacy courses, as well as students and faculty in computer science, ethnic studies, gender studies, and mass communications." ― Choice
"A good read for anyone interested in how bias can be expressed by lines of code. Even those already familiar with the issues will find new insight in the connections and impact Noble outlines. The book is accessible even to those who are not well-versed in the technology of search engines." -- The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion
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"Algorithms of Oppression succeeds as a critical intervention, one with a clear commitment to engaged scholarship that should lead to policy changes as well as changes in a field too white, American and male. For readers of this journal, the book is a powerful example of the vital contributions of Black Feminist
Technology Studies... Noble demonstrates that engaged, intersectional and accessible writing can and indeed does make a difference."
"Often assumed by both developers and the general public to be value-neutral, the algorithmic structures through which human beings create, organize, and access content online are, Noble effectively argues, inescapably shaped by the logics of oppression that shape our interconnected lives … Algorithms provides a strong introduction, with concrete and replicable examples of algorithmic oppression, for those beginning to think critically about our internet-centric information ecosystem. For those already steeped in the rapidly growing literature of critical librarian and information studies, Algorithms will be a valuable addition to our corpus of texts that blend theory and practice, both documenting the problematic nature of where we are and the possibility of where we might arrive in future if we fight, collectively, to make it so." -- New England Archivists
"Algorithms of Oppression offers a sobering portrait of the impact of our reliance on quick, freely accessible searches. Foregrounding her discussion in the context of the technological mechanisms and decision‐makers that drive results, Noble forces the reader to confront the rarely discussed risks and long‐term costs associated with easy‐to‐access, corporate‐sponsored information." -- Teachers College Record
"All search results are not created equal. Through deft analyses of software, society, and superiority, Noble exposes both the motivations and mathematics that make a & technologically redlined internet. Read this book to understand how supposedly race neutral zeros and ones simply dont add up." -- Matthew W. Hughey,Author of White Bound: Nationalists, Antiracists, and the Shared Meanings of Race
"Safiya Noble has produced an outstanding book that raises clear alarms about the ways Google quietly shapes our lives, minds, and attitudes. Noble writes with urgency and clarity. This book is essential for anyone hoping to understand our current information ecosystem." -- Siva Vaidhyanathan,Author of The Googlization of Everything ― and Why We Should Worry
"Safiya Nobles compelling and accessible book is an impressive survey of the impact of search and other algorithms on our understandings of racial and gender identity. Her study raises crucial questions regarding the power and control of algorithms, and is essential reading for understanding the way media works in the contemporary moment." -- Sarah Banet-Weiser,Author of Authentic™: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture
"Algorithms of Oppression shines a light not only on the way that new technologies both reaffirm hegemonies of the past and impose constraints on our futures, but also on how we ourselves are interpellated daily and voluntarily into these algorithmic processes." ― This Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory
"Illustrates not only how the platforms and programmes we use in our daily life are created and built within a specific economic, racial, and gendered context, but that that context and those platforms enact and reinforce oppressive social relationships as we use them." ― Archifacts
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : NYU Press; Illustrated edition (February 20, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 248 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1479837245
- ISBN-13 : 978-1479837243
- Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.56 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #61,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7 in Digital Design (Books)
- #227 in Discrimination & Racism
- #256 in African American Demographic Studies (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Dr. Safiya U. Noble is a Professor at UCLA in the Departments of Gender Studies and African American Studies. She is a Research Associate to the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. Currently, she is the Co-Founder of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry and Co-Director of the Minderoo Initiative on Technology and Power. In 2021, she was recognized as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow (also known as the “Genius Award”) for her ground-breaking work on algorithmic discrimination. In 2022, she was recognized as the inaugural NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award recipient.
She is the author of a best-selling academic book on racist and sexist algorithmic bias in commercial search engines, entitled Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press), which has been widely-reviewed in journals and periodicals including the Los Angeles Review of Books, featured in the New York Public Library 2018 Best Books for Adults (non-fiction), and recognized by Bustle magazine as one of 10 Books about Race to Read Instead of Asking a Person of Color to Explain Things to You.
She is regularly quoted for her expertise on issues of algorithmic discrimination and technology bias by national and international press including The Guardian, the BBC, CNN International, USA Today, Wired, Time, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The New York Times, and Virginia Public Radio, and a host of local news and podcasts, including Science Friction, and Science Friday to name a few. Recently, she was named in the “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers of 2019” by Government Technology magazine.
Safiya is the recipient of a Hellman Fellowship and the UCLA Early Career Award. Her academic research focuses on the design of digital media platforms on the internet and their impact on society. Her work is both sociological and interdisciplinary, marking the ways that digital media impacts and intersects with issues of race, gender, culture, and technology.
Additionally, Dr. Noble is the co-editor of two edited volumes: The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Culture and Class Online and Emotions, Technology & Design. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, and is the co-editor of the Commentary & Criticism section of the Journal of Feminist Media Studies. She is a member of several academic journal and advisory boards, and holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Library & Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a B.A. in Sociology from California State University, Fresno.
Research & Scholarly Interests:
Search engine ethics
Racial and gender bias in algorithms
Technological redlining
Socio-cultural, economic and ethical implications of information in society
Race, gender and sexuality in information communication technologies
Digital technology and Internet policy development
Privacy and surveillance
Information and/as control
Critical information studies
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Customers find the book easy to read and understandable. It provides valuable insights into search and digital systems. While it may be academic and wordy, customers consider it worthwhile.
"...the ways corporate monopolies shape the Internet, this book is beautifully written and easy for those not from a tech background to understand...." Read more
"Thank you to Dr. Noble for this incredible contribution to the body of work serving as a permanent record of resistance to algorithmic..." Read more
"...This book is amazing...." Read more
"...A lot of the case studies do excellent objective analysis and is succinctly summarized for a curious reader...." Read more
Customers find the book well-researched and informative. They say it provides practical perspectives to consider and is a good starting point for further research. The book summarizes objectively and succinctly for curious readers.
"Algorithms of oppression is essential reading for anyone who uses Google or other services online...." Read more
"...This book is amazing. It provides context to how the intersecting identities of race and gender..." Read more
"...case studies do excellent objective analysis and is succinctly summarized for a curious reader...." Read more
"This book is so informative...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2019Algorithms of oppression is essential reading for anyone who uses Google or other services online. Unlike some of the books attempting to explain the ways corporate monopolies shape the Internet, this book is beautifully written and easy for those not from a tech background to understand. Noble focuses on one key site- Google and other Internet searches - to explain how algorithms reflect and magnify human biases to drive discrimination and increase inequality between the few rich white men who run Silicon Valley and the rest of us.
This book should be required reading for everyone. Noble uses everyday examples to make the invisible processes that shape and corrupt search results online visible. This is an example of what the best scholarship does- addressing a social problem and educating the public about it.
Noble's original analysis improves on other work on algorithms and bias by foregrounding race, gender, and class and advocating for practical solutions. The resulting book will inspire parallel work on algorithms, search, and culture by providing a method for making the values and interests driving culture visible despite them being so normalised as to be invisible.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2019Thank you to Dr. Noble for this incredible contribution to the body of work serving as a permanent record of resistance to algorithmic rearticulations of eugenics. Thank you for centering critical race theory (CRT) as the epistemic lens through which we must evaluate the social impact of predictive analytics.
There is sections that at first glance feel *jargon laden*, but a patient reader will be rewarded with rich insights brought in by the information/library science expertise. We’re in an era where the Google color palette is immediately recognizable on the cover but few people pause to consider the implications of our communal knowledge being processed and delivered by the multi billion dollar company that’s far from politically or ideologically neutral.
She does a good job forcing us to pause and consider why Google Search initially generated images of Gorrilas when ‘Black Woman’ was entered as a keyword. This error and similar cases have since been programmatically removed from the search engine but the more global questions-how did we transition our communal knowledge and it’s curation to neoliberal industry absent public comment, how do we intervene in the epistemic injustice wrought by systems embedded in the public conscious as beacons of progress and innovation-remain.
Algorithms of Oppression is a critical read for anyone tryna ‘Get Out!’ #JordanPeele style from the twin rise of the Trump regime and neoliberal technocracy. My only critique is the book could have benefitted from some stronger editing to elicit clearer synthesis of some of Noble’s unique insights specifically grounded in information science. The outrageous racism revealed in algorithmic outputs takes center stage and maybe rightly so, but there are points she makes along the way, that are being neglected by other scholars in the field that I would have like to seen greater focus on and more explicitly stated. I imagine it’s tough for brilliant women of color in tech to find editors that get CRT and the intersection of tech and humanities within the demographics of the American publishing world. Ultimately, the strength of the research goes along way to compensate for those shortcomings. I’m so curious to see what she will write next, the exhausting impotence of the agnostic left, weary soldiers propping up the failed project of “fairness” are not ready for this scholar’s revitalization of liberation theory post digital turn.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2020I'd like to note how those writing the negative reviews are precisely the problem in CS. They believe that there is no merit in the research of social scientist's analysis of the impact of the technologies we develop on society...especially when they speak only to systemically marginalized groups (Black and Latina women/girls).
Those individuals are the *precise* reason why Dr. Noble's book was necessary.
This book is amazing. It provides context to how the intersecting identities of race and gender (and the negative views of women/girls holding these identities) are impacted by a field dominated by white and Asian men who have never thought about (or cared to) how their work has impacted millions.
Thank you, Dr. Noble, for this work that speaks to the need for every single computer science faculty member, student, and graduate to understand how problematic the work we do can be for so many who look like me.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2020I think this book is a good entry point for you to do your own research. The author relies heavily on other case studies and does a great job at synthesizing their results for the reader. Given that, Dr. Noble chooses when and she she does not want to go into the details. I think it's important for you to go ahead and look into the details yourself.
For example, the claim that Google is seen as the de facto source for objective truth goes largely unchecked, but that is the basis for a lot of the proposed solutions to algorithmic bias. I would have loved to see more research on how the public views the quality and accuracy of the information and rankings that are shown on Google. Yes, people click the top result most often, but why does that necessarily mean that the top result is being accepted as objective fact?
The example of Google Photos identifying a black teenager as a gorilla hit home for me since I went to high school with that person. The level of detail on how search algorithms come up with such results is much appreciated. A lot of the case studies do excellent objective analysis and is succinctly summarized for a curious reader.
All in all, the book gets you to a point where you now know what the right questions are to ask when learning more about algorithmic bias.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2023This book is so informative. I now understand why I was only seeing negative thinks on social media and the news all the time this book is my holy bible to the Internet.love it.
Top reviews from other countries
- GRDReviewed in Canada on January 27, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read book
This book should be required reading for everyone in the tech sector and should be a reference for all of us currently swimming in this sea of technology. This is a well written, important book that exposes and explains problems of bias that permeate all corners of technology. We have been led to believe that the Internet is an open neutral environment, but this books shows us that premise must be abandoned.
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Cliente KindleReviewed in Brazil on January 12, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Excelente livro
Cheguei a ele graças a recomendação de uma professora incrível que tive de Comunicação digital, cada dia tenho mais interesse pelo tema e penso que apesar de novo, esse livro já é referência no tema.
Trabalho necessário, potente e cuidadoso, que aponta como a falta de regulação, falta de pessoas negras no processo de construção dos algoritmos, podem trazer danos quase irreparáveis para a sociedade.
Recomendo o livro para todo mundo que usa, gosta de internet e mídias sociais no dia dia, seja para o lazer, estudo ou trabalho.
- Bennett GaverneReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Book of genius
This is undoubtedly a book of genius. We need to take care folks as we are the cusp of a major change that dictates who shall actually enjoy the fruits of the 21st century. This is one of the most important books of the 21st century.
- SamanthaReviewed in Germany on October 19, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Encourages us to think more critically about the information we get from the web
This is an evidence-based book plus more on how search engines reinforce racism, stereotypes, and the negative consequences. Noble touches on the ranking system of Google and warns us about the dangers of prioritizing commercial interest over providing information that best serves the interest of all. Because we live in a world where there is an unequal balance of power certain populist views and values can be promoted on such platforms. Therefore, motivating the need for public policy to intervene in order to protect the public especially marginalized communities.
Noble also provides a black feminist perspective as she sheds spotlight on the history of oppression of Black women and how the negative stereotypes came about and how this image of black women is reinforced by search engines. This is part of the problem why the dismantling of unconscious bias etc is very difficult. We cannot achieve equality if different/diverse social context is left out in technology design.
This book really gives you a lot to think about and I am encouraged to learn more about bias in AI from a social and humanitarian perspective.
- I BReviewed in Italy on September 13, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice book
She continue to run around the same idea