TikTok's "Suggested Accounts" Algorithm Allegedly Reinforced Racial Bias through Feedback Loops

February 24, 2020

TikTok's 'Suggested Accounts' algorithm is under scrutiny for reinforcing racial bias, despite the platform not basing recommendations on race or profile photos. This incident underscores the importance of responsible AI governance to prevent harm and ensure safe and secure AI practices.

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Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

MAP 1.6 — similarity 0.628, rank 1. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MEASURE 2.10 — similarity 0.624, rank 2. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MEASURE 2.6 — similarity 0.620, rank 3. TAIM detail and related incidents →

Alleged deployer: tiktok
Alleged developer: tiktok
Alleged harmed parties: tiktok-users, tiktok-content-creators

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/117

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.