It is no secret that social media algorithms have not been at its best lately.
Many consider this to be a side effect of the recent administrative changes the tech industry has been going through. Meta announced the layoff of more than 11,000 of its employees, and Twitter purged around 2700 staff following the completion of Elon Musk’s 44-billion-dollar purchase.
A “digital advertising slowdown” has been credited as the main perpetrator by the tech industry. YouTube brought in 7.4 billion dollars in advertisement revenue in the second quarter, making this the slowest annual profit increase in the past three years. Meta’s quarterly advertisement revenue tallied up to 28.2 billion dollars, down one percent from the same period a year ago, marking the company’s first revenue decline in a decade.
Susan Sofia Sarmiento Ortiz, a Division of International Studies student from Columbia, had been noticing not-so-subtle changes when using Twitter or Facebook, such as the increase of irrelevant advertisements. She mentioned these issues arose after the recent management reordering of the respective companies and expressed concern on the possibility of further restrictions on content one can share on Twitter.
Three freshman students from the Division of International Studies also shared their recent experiences with social media platforms after the administrative adjustments.
One student mentioned that there has been a vast increase of sexually inappropriate content on Twitter. Even if one tries to look up restaurants in Seoul, they might end up in a swamp of illegal advertisements for explicit content. Another student added that many errors occurred when using theplatform, such as profile pictures not loading, or follower lists not being accurately mentioned. A third student further commented that Instagram and Twitter’s algorithms have been lagging recently significantly. All the students questioned the management modifications as the culprit of these issues.
Yoo Seung-Chul, associate professor from the School of Communication and Media, dissected that the current digital advertising slowdown is an inevitable result of the far-too rapid growth the market has undergone in the recent years, especially after the skyrocketing stock value of TikTok or Meta during the pandemic era. The slowdown is seen as a problem solely because what used to be fast growth has now evened out into steady growth.
The rapid growth meant that the companies had hired a surplus number of engineers and staff, and as the heated attention around these platforms die down, it is only natural that the unnecessary workforce leave. This does not have direct effect on its users, and there is no need for heightened concern about huge algorithmic change.
In fact, Yoo mentioned that there are new-type digital advertisements in the process of development right now, experimenting with different formats currently on trend. For instance, TikTok, with its viral short videos, is rising as the new hub for digital advertisements, due to its compatibility with e-commerce and the large number of influencers on the app who can effectively promote a variety of products.
According to Yoo, Twitter and Meta are both exceptional cases in terms of management change and staff layoff, as Twitter is undergoing an ownership transfer, while Meta’s rushed investments in the Metaverse has proven relatively unfruitful.
He stressed that these issues are not applicable to all social media companies, and although these changes may put their respective social media platforms through minor changes, the effects are negligible. This means the management problems cannot be held entirely accountable for the algorithmic change detected by its users.
On the other hand, Yoo mentioned that algorithm change is due to the strengthening of privacy protection laws and regulations on the social media platforms.
For instance, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) in South Korea has announced that they would be subjecting both Google and Meta to hefty fines for their misleading privacy policies, and the illegal collection of personal information.
As a result of these strengthened regulations, social media platforms now have restricted access to the collected information on their users and are prohibited from combining their personal data. This naturally means the algorithm now lacks precision, which can cause errors in the algorithm suggesting new content to the users.
“Currently, the social media market is dominated by the main giants, who are struggling keep their grip on the market as new competitors continue to emerge,” Yoo disclosed. “It is an overly saturated market that awaits for an upending of the balance as the new players strive for growth.”
In the digital era of rapid change, it may prove to be most crucial to maintain a critical stance towards what social media presents, and actively remain informed on its changes, instead becoming a passive consumer of media content.