Debiasing Desire: Addressing Bias and Discrimination on Intimate Platforms

Forthcoming in Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. v. 2 (CSCW) Article 73 (November 2018)

18 Pages Posted: 1 Oct 2018

See all articles by Jevan Hutson

Jevan Hutson

Hintze Law PLLC

Jessie Taft

Cornell University - Cornell Tech NYC

Solon Barocas

Microsoft Research; Cornell University

Karen Levy

Cornell University

Date Written: September 5, 2018

Abstract

Designing technical systems to be resistant to bias and discrimination represents vital new terrain for researchers, policymakers, and the anti-discrimination project more broadly. We consider bias and discrimination in the context of popular online dating and hookup platforms in the United States, which we call "intimate platforms." Drawing on work in social-justice-oriented and Queer HCI, we review design features of popular intimate platforms and their potential role in exacerbating or mitigating interpersonal bias. We argue that focusing on platform design can reveal opportunities to reshape troubling patterns of intimate contact without overriding users' decisional autonomy. We identify and address the difficult ethical questions that nevertheless come along with such intervention, while urging the social computing community to engage more deeply with issues of bias, discrimination, and exclusion in the study and design of intimate platforms.

Keywords: platforms, bias, discrimination, ethics, design, law, policy, online dating, intimacy

JEL Classification: I18, I14, I31, J12, J13, J14, J15, J16, J17, J18, D02

Suggested Citation

Hutson, Jevan and Taft, Jessie and Barocas, Solon and Levy, Karen, Debiasing Desire: Addressing Bias and Discrimination on Intimate Platforms (September 5, 2018). Forthcoming in Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. v. 2 (CSCW) Article 73 (November 2018), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3244459

Jevan Hutson

Hintze Law PLLC ( email )

Jessie Taft

Cornell University - Cornell Tech NYC ( email )

111 8th Avenue #302
New York, NY 10011
United States

Solon Barocas

Microsoft Research

300 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012
United States

Cornell University ( email )

Ithaca, NY 14853
United States

Karen Levy (Contact Author)

Cornell University ( email )

Ithaca, NY 14853
United States

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