Are Algorithms (google, meta, apple, amazon) Political?

What does it even mean for something to be, in its nature, political?

Writing Sample II Ottley James.pdf

Download PDF • 218KB

I examine Michal Foucault and his book Discipline and Punish, Zuboff Shoshana's "Big Other" in the Journal of Information Technologies, Wendy Brown in her Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution, & Colin Koopman in his book How We Became Our Data: A Genealogy of the Informational Person to determine a two-fold question: What does it mean for something to be 'political' and does that define the relations algorithms have to the democracy of the U.S.? In short, algorithms are political because of many factors including, but not limited to, its ability to fasten characteristics to users in such a manner which formats individuals into niche identities. Algorithms are political in this sense: the influence of Meta, Google, Apple, or any algorithm, permeates into all spheres of life and thus impacts representation through behavioral modification. Not only are economic choices effected by algorithms, but individual choices in the social and political spheres of life (voting beliefs/habits) are now constantly influenced through the fastening and formatting of technological services.