Defining Algorithmic Ideology: Using Ideology Critique to Scrutinize Corporate Search Engines

Abstract

This article conceptualizes "algorithmic ideology" as a valuable tool to understand and critique corporate search engines in the context of wider socio-political developments. Drawing on critical theory it shows how capitalist value-systems manifest in search technology, how they spread through algorithmic logics and how they are stabilized in society. Following philosophers like Althusser, Marx and Gramsci it elaborates how content providers and users contribute to Google's capital accumulation cycle and exploitation schemes that come along with it. In line with contemporary mass media and neoliberal politics they appear to be fostering capitalism and its "commodity fetishism" (Marx). It further reveals that the capitalist hegemony has to be constantly negotiated and renewed. This dynamic notion of ideology opens up the view for moments of struggle and counter-actions. "Organic intellectuals" (Gramsci) can play a central role in challenging powerful actors like Google and their algorithmic ideology. To pave the way towards more democratic information technology, however, requires more than single organic intellectuals. Additional obstacles need to be conquered, as I finally discuss.Keywords: Search Engine, Algorithm, Critical Theory, Ideology, Capitalism, Social Practices, Net Politics, Social Movements Acknowledgement: This research was funded by the Jubiläumsfonds of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), project number 14702. I would like to thank René König, Doris Allhutter and the reviewers of this journal for their helpful comments on the article.

Big Data and the Little Big Bang: An Epistemological (R)evolution

“…The faith in objective quantification, or dataism (van Dijck, 2014, p. 198), is the belief in the efficiency of a "pseudo omniscient algorithmic deity" (Gransche, 2016, p. 60). Algorithms are not only designed by humans for other humans but also embedded within a capitalist mode of production (Mager, 2011(Mager, , 2014Biblić, 2016;Burrell, 2016;Ames, 2018;Caplan and Boyd, 2018;Grosman and Reigeluth, 2019). Google, for instance, remains a "profit-oriented, advertisingfinanced moneymaking machine" that promotes a "stratified attention economy" and delivers "a distorted picture of reality" (Fuchs, 2011).…”

Körperdaten – Datenkörper. Auf den Spuren mehrdeutiger Reisen von Datenkörpern zwischen Empowerment und sozialer Kontrolle im Gesundheitsbereich

“…This indicates once again that digital platforms and smart health services should not be seen as neutral tools. Rather, they incorporate certain values, norms, and ideologies, most importantly the capitalist ideology, as notions such as "algorithmic ideology" (Mager 2012(Mager , 2014, "informational capitalism" (Fuchs 2010), "cognitive capitalism" (Pasquinelli 2009), or "surveillance capitalism" (Zuboff 2019) suggest. In order to make medical care intelligent with the help of machine learning, they collate not only people's behavior and concerns but also social and biochemical traces, environmental information, and archives of medical decision-making to improve online medical services and personal health management.…”

Materialist Perspectives on Digital Technologies

“…However, the way through which such filters tacitly predispose which information becomes available, and which remains hidden, have led Miller and Record (2013) and Mager (2014) to warn of possible implications for the formation of individual and collective beliefs. According to Miller and Record (2013), the tendencies afforded by these technologies might facilitate the formation of echo chambers where users are increasingly exposed to viewpoints and attitudes similar to their own, rather than exchanging arguments with fundamentally opposed positions.…”