ALGORITHMIC BIAS

Twitter Investigating Racial Bias in Picture Cropping After User Outcry

“I know you think it’s fun to dunk on me—but I’m as irritated about this as everyone else,” said Twitter’s chief design officer.

Twitter will analyze and improve its picture-cropping algorithm after users discovered over the weekend it appears to prefer white faces to Black ones. For example, former Square engineer Tony Arcieri tweeted out a large image of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s face both above and below a photo of President Barack Obama. But in a preview of the image, Obama’s face was repeatedly cropped out by the algorithm. Although the social-media platform said via its communications account they found no evidence of racial or gender bias prior to implementing the algorithm, company officials conceded they had more work to do. “We’ll continue to share what we learn, what actions we take and will open source it so others can review and replicate,” the company said. Dantley Davis, Twitter’s chief design officer, said he would fix the problem. “I know you think it’s fun to dunk on me—but I’m as irritated about this as everyone else,” Davis said, adding, “It’s 100 percent our fault. No one should say otherwise.”