Even 'likes' we press on Facebook posts to make friends happy can be a harmful ways and means !!
It is no exaggeration to say that popular platforms with loyal users, like Google and Facebook, know those users better than their families and friends do.
Many firms collect an enormous amount of data as an input for their artificial intelligence algorithms.
Facebook Likes, for example, can be used to predict with a high degree of accuracy various characteristics of Facebook users:
“sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious and political views,
personality traits, intelligence, happiness, use of addictive substances, parental separation, age, and gender,”
Facebook algorithm issues span systemic amplification of divisive content, recent high-profile glitch restrictions on high-level political posts, and algorithmic biases that skew user feeds.
Algorithm misuse happens when computer rules or artificial intelligence are used in harmful, unfair, or unintended ways. This causes bad outcomes like discrimination, data leaks, or spread of fake news.
Automated moderation errors frequently misidentify legitimate political posts or public updates as violations, leading to high-profile diplomatic tensions and parliamentary scrutiny over public order.
A mix of heavy outsourcing and rapid, automated feature rollouts contributes to persistent glitches.
For far too long Meta and its boss Mark Zuckerberg have used the word algorithm to avoid taking responsibility for their own platforms like Instagram and Facebook. They are doing it again after Facebook deleted a video of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his book Homo Deus writer Yuval Noah Harari writes about the opaque nature of algorithms. “Algorithm is arguably the single most important concept in our world,” he writes.
“If we want to understand our life and our future, we should make every effort to understand what an algorithm is, and how algorithms are connected with emotions.”
Meta should not hide behind algorithm, it must come clean on PM Modi video
India must not stop there. India must demand accountability. It must demand transparency. It must demand parity in how Meta algorithms work. And it must demand that algorithms and “technical glitches” cannot be used as the escape route.
The year is 2016. The date is September 8. And on the front page of the Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper, there is an open letter written by the editor and addressed to Mark Zuckerberg. In the letter are the following words:
“I am upset, disappointed — well, in fact even afraid — of what you are about to do to a mainstay of our democratic society. I am worried that the world’s most important medium is limiting freedom instead of trying to extend it, and that this occasionally happens in an authoritarian way.”
The reason behind these angry, and utterly justifiable, words is something that Facebook has done. It has deleted a post that contained a Pulitzer-winning photo from the Vietnam War because its algorithms and filters found the famous photo violating nudity guidelines of the website.
Facebook acknowledged its error when the issue raised questions on its ability, or inability, to properly govern its own platforms. It blamed the deletion on a technical error.
The year is 2026. The date is July 28. Facebook has deleted a video, an innocuous message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is blaming it again on a technical error.
Ten years apart. Posts deleted. Posts restored. On both occasions, and many more, the culprit — a technical glitch! This is how Meta rolls, this is how its CEO Mark Zuckerberg has set up the accountability of his platforms. This is how Meta avoids taking responsibility.
Now, many Indians believe it and Zuckerberg must not be allowed to wash its hands off what its algorithms or automated systems do.
In 2026, it must not be given the benefit of doubt anymore. Because we have seen it far too often when Meta hides behind its “algorithms.”
"All the committee members were unanimous that if you can take down the content of the PM, then there is nothing more serious than this, and therefore, an apology will not suffice," BJP MP Nishikant Dubey says.
"Mark Zuckerberg will have to apologize. Otherwise, our committee, the entire committee, has made a unanimous recommendation that if your Safe Harbor does not remove CSAM, does not remove women's content, and does not give prominence to the government's views while promoting anti-national forces against the government. ... then your Safe Harbor content will be taken down...".
The problem is not with algorithms. The problem is with not taking accountability.
Tech companies have been traditionally averse to taking responsibility and accountability for what its products and services do. They do not believe in playing by rules. The spirit is best embodied by Mark Zuckerberg himself, who in the early days of Facebook coined a phrase that even now is a defining Silicon Valley feature.
“Move fast and break things.” And don’t care about the consequences.
This is something the world must grapple with and fix. At least for India, the mistake Meta “algorithms” have made with the PM video gives the country a chance to bring accountability to tech companies.
E-commerce platforms sell the same products at different prices to different customers because algorithms.
Uber, Ola and Rapido dynamically adjust prices up and down in an opaque manner because algorithms.
People get banned on platforms like Instagram out of blue because algorithms.
Someone abusing someone enjoys a million views and no action is taken by X or Instagram because algorithms. While someone else asking a question to someone else, even if the question is perfectly civil and genuine, gets banned because algorithms.
ends
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