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Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

algorithmwatch.org

61–70 of 90 posts

Re: Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

#61
post #2

It seems like the possibility that photos-of-undress are promoted by organic engagement is not discussed? (aka people seem to be clicking on this). Confession: this is the first thing that sprang to mind for me. Not that algorithms suck or companies suck (though both of those are true) but that people suck.

With the rise of blackbox deeplearning it's entirely possible that this is actively reinforced by instagram and not just an organic process.

Re: Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

#62
post #12

> the label “beauty”, for instance, was only returned for females Males just dont look good, or something. Edit: as someone noted before, my point was not that that men look badly. More that it is ridiculous bias I did not even noticed before.

People disagreeing with this comment: please consider what the post is trying to highlight. There's an apparent asymmetry in how imagery of females is perceived, vs. similarly posing males. Commercials employing 'sex sells' tactics are still biased towards using the female sex to sell. Reddits' r/gonewild and offshoots is pretty huge, and filled with females. This is a truism. The label 'beauty' being only returned f…

Yes, that was my point. Not that I think males look ugly, I don't. More that beauty being female only is a clear example of bias. I have seen similar bias with the word "elegant" exactly today. It was prompt in the list of photos and there was exactly one guy and many women in result.

> To me personally it is enlightening to see how 'smart' data driven systems expose the systemic biases in our society.

I also think that they to make that systemic bias bigger. Like, if there is small difference between the gender of elegant in real life, the algorithm will make it higher. The human bias in worst as amplifier too, but I find algorithmic harder to control and even worst in amplifying effect.

Re: Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

#63
post #16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless your don't want to, but you are obliged to use IG because your business focuses on a demographic on which IG has a monopoly (the 15-25 demographics in the EU).

I'm sure there are worse jobs than using Instagram

There's a difference between using Instagram and having to wear a Bikini on Instagram even if you don't want to.

Re: Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

#64
post #37

> While our results show that male and female content creators are forced to show skin in similar ways if they want to reach their audience, the effect could be larger for females, and be considered a discrimination of female entrepreneurs. Overall this article strikes me as a large collection of pseudo-science but this sentence baffles me the most. Is the author arguing against their own conclusions?

I think it's called "subtlety" but I'm no native speaker.

From your profile I can gather that you are affiliated with the source so I'd really be interested in what you mean by this

Re: Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

#65
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure there are worse jobs than using Instagram

There's a difference between using Instagram and having to wear a Bikini on Instagram even if you don't want to.

Nothing worse than owning a car repair shop and having to force your mechanics to wear a bikini for Instagram ads. Imagine having to have that conversation with a bunch of short tempered hairy dudes

Re: Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

#66

> While our results show that male and female content creators are forced to show skin in similar ways if they want to reach their audience, the effect could be larger for females, and be considered a discrimination of female entrepreneurs. Overall this article strikes me as a large collection of pseudo-science but this sentence baffles me the most. Is the author arguing against their own conclusions?

I don't disagree about the style/tone of the article but this conclusion is borne out by their own data:

> Posts that contained pictures of women in undergarment or bikini were 54% more likely to appear in the newsfeed of our volunteers. Posts containing pictures of bare chested men were 28% more likely to be shown.

The effect is clearly larger for women, and if you have no problems with their data I don't think it is a reach to assume it disadvantages female entrepreneurs more than male entrepreneurs, especially given that in many cultures the pressure to dress modestly is stronger on women than on men.

Re: Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

#68
post #2

It seems like the possibility that photos-of-undress are promoted by organic engagement is not discussed? (aka people seem to be clicking on this). Confession: this is the first thing that sprang to mind for me. Not that algorithms suck or companies suck (though both of those are true) but that people suck.

Here’s my guess: there is an ML model running at Instagram to prioritize content shown to users in the service of some target: engagement, revenue, shares, etc.

This model takes many of the features of the image into account: the account posting, the account’s previous likes, the number of existing likes and the time frame they were received in, the GPS location of the poster, etc... and possibly... deep learning features from the image itself.

If the model has the deep learning features... it will take all of 10 minutes of IG-scale data to overpromote hot naked people. It will also learn all of their userbase’s biases, and underpromote content from black people that isn’t “stereotypically black,” overweight women, short men, etc.

Re: Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

#69
post #2

It seems like the possibility that photos-of-undress are promoted by organic engagement is not discussed? (aka people seem to be clicking on this). Confession: this is the first thing that sprang to mind for me. Not that algorithms suck or companies suck (though both of those are true) but that people suck.

If you’ve ever visited the profile of a woman with a very sexualised or glamorous LinkedIn profile, you’ll see the “people also viewed” results are almost entirely other women with glam photos. The normal case is that “people also viewed” is others at the same company or with similar industry/job type.

Re: Instagram prioritizes photos of scantily-clad men and women

#70
post #12

> the label “beauty”, for instance, was only returned for females Males just dont look good, or something. Edit: as someone noted before, my point was not that that men look badly. More that it is ridiculous bias I did not even noticed before.

As a non-native English speaker I wonder — is it common to call a man "beautiful" in reference to his looks?
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