Team WOC

News feeds negatively impact

women of color

Problem

Problem

• inaccurate representations in mainstream media

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• over-saturation

Preferences

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Users can either silence people or tolerate unwanted content, but currently no middle ground exists.

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The power of curation and control over the content a user sees can prioritize healthy representations and balanced viewpoints.

Mental Health Impact

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• raised stress levels among women and youth of color

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• increased biases

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• Stress from racism leads to mental and physical illness according to hundreds of studies

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Solution

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Modify the Facebook algorithm so it is less abrasive to women of color

Solution

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How?

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1. Prioritize content by women of color in order to increase equity and diversity in content creators�
2. Hire women of color data scientists in order to reduce bias in the design of the machine-learning model that Facebook uses in developing the newsfeed algorithm

Thank you!

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Outcomes

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• Develop a consortium made up of women of color to shape policy related to data science and mental health in technology

Leah Nichols, Krystal Cooper, Priya Iyer, Cat Carbonell, Vandna Mittal