Technically Wrong

October 15, 2017

From enabling fake news to facilitating online harassment to causing corporate scandal, the companies that create and control online environments are awash in biased, unjust, and even dangerous practices, according to web consultant and debut author Wachter-Boettcher. Social media platforms and apps that connect, educate, and entertain also inconvenience, offend, and harm many of their users. In an engaging, if dispiriting, blend of anecdote and data, Wachter-Boettcher describes algorithms that discriminate against users and forms that deny people their identity. She ascribes these attributes to the industry's near-complete dominance by white men of relatively similar circumstance, perspective, and bias. A culture in which people of color are barely represented in roles of power, disregards the needs and realities of diverse consumers. Thanks to media coverage, investigative reporting, and ongoing conversations about these issues, this book is not breaking news but has significant value, especially as a call for meaningful action. A stronger focus on solutions and on companies with healthier practices, such as the briefly profiled Slack and Nextdoor, would have been welcome. VERDICT Recommended for all readers interested in the intersection of technology and social justice.--Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 23, 2017
Web consultant Wachter-Boettcher (Content Everywhere) clearly demonstrates the ways digital products are deeply connected to the intentional and unintentional biases of their designers in this approachable primer on digital technology. Wachter-Boettcher calls attention to the abdication of responsibility by the engineers who created the algorithms that result in major and often cruel design flaws in social media, such as the automated Year in Review feature on Facebook that pushed pictures of users’ dead children into their news feeds or the Google Photos tagging feature that was not trained on dark-skinned people and thus marked them as gorillas. The book also highlights more insidious and disturbing uses of certain technologies: discriminatory targeting and surveillance of users, culturally insensitive and obligatory forms requiring personal data, potentially dangerous verification processes such as Facebook’s real-name policy. Many of the real life examples of the major design flaws of digital products, such as spread of abuse and hate speech on Twitter— will be familiar to most readers, but the author adds technical detail pointing out how Twitter developed features like retweets and hashtags while failing to improve features to prevent or stop abuse. Wachter-Boettcher urges readers to hold engineers and venture capitalists accountable for the harm they cause by failing to incorporate diverse voices in the design process for creating the everyday tools of the 21st century.

January 1, 2018

Those with hyphenated names often encounter difficulty when filling out online forms, and there's usually no option in the drop-down menus for those who are multiracial. Social networks show us the year in review with jaunty music and animation, without acknowledging that some of our most popular posts may be about tragic events we don't want to remember. In straightforward prose, Wachter-Boettcher lays out a convincing and damning argument about the small daily failures and large systemic issues that stem from Silicon Valley's diversity problem. With plenty of examples and studies, she illustrates how systems are designed to be used by people like the creator-usually privileged cisgender heterosexual white men. Anyone else is seen as an "edge case" and not worth worrying about. Along the way Wachter-Boettcher thoroughly deconstructs many of the excuses offered for technology's lack of inclusivity, including the pipeline issue (or the idea that outside of white male demographics there isn't enough talent) and the concept that an algorithm can be neutral. VERDICT This engrossing volume is important for readers of all ages, especially the next generation of developers.-Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington Public Library, VA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.