While recommendation algorithms have significantly empowered human communication process, there is an emerging scholarly and societal concern regarding the potential discrimination inherent in algorithmic decision-making. The present study employs a novel agent-based testing approach to conduct an automated audit of the Douyin algorithm’s recommendations for health-related videos, aiming to investigate its relationship with information inequalities between individuals who are socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged. Our findings imply the possible existence of a new digital divide, wherein the algorithm tends to recommend a smaller proportion of authenticated health-related videos on cheap phone models, representing users in low socioeconomic group. Furthermore, this divide was mitigated when both groups demonstrated the same watching strategy for authenticated information. This study implies that recommendation algorithms actively perpetuate and exacerbate discriminatory social structures in reality. We also advocate for increased attention and education among the low socioeconomic group to enhance their health information literacy and understanding of algorithmic mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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算法造成新的数字鸿沟？抖音健康相关视频推荐基于代理的测试证据


虽然推荐算法极大地增强了人类交流过程的能力，但学术界和社会界对算法决策中固有的潜在歧视越来越感到担忧。本研究采用一种新颖的基于代理的测试方法对抖音算法对健康相关视频的推荐进行自动审核，旨在调查其与社会经济优势和劣势个体之间信息不平等的关系。我们的研究结果意味着可能存在新的数字鸿沟，其中算法倾向于在廉价手机型号上推荐较小比例的经过验证的健康相关视频，代表低社会经济群体的用户。此外，当两个群体对经过验证的信息表现出相同的观察策略时，这种分歧就得到了缓解。这项研究表明，推荐算法会主动延续并加剧现实中的歧视性社会结构。我们还主张加强对低社会经济群体的关注和教育，以提高他们的健康信息素养和对算法机制的理解。