This talk may be well equal to a harsh awakening for uncritical users of the internet! According to Swedish author and journalist Andreas Ekström, it is a philosophical impossibility to ever get unbiased search results. “Behind every algorithm is a person with a set of personal beliefs no code is ever able to eradicate completely.” He explains the power structures of the digital revolution by stating the example (a.o.) of Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who blew up government buildings in the city of Oslo and killed a large group of kids on the island of Utøya. Around 80 people died that day in 2011. Specialists knew that the next thing Breivik would do was to google his own name, a predictable act of vanity. Nikke Lindqvist, a Swedish web developer and search engine optimization expert in Stockholm, understood that immediately and lanced a highly effective campaign. This video talk tells us that we are not helpless after all!
Andreas Ekström is a staff writer at Sydsvenskan a daily morning paper in Malmö, Sweden.
He has a vision for a world that shares wealth – not only financially, but also in terms of knowledge and power. Andreas is a columnist and a commentator, the author of six books, and he often lectures and leads seminars on digital revolution and equality.
Header image: ©Christina Feyerke