The commercial unfairness of recommender systems on social media

Abstract

As social media platforms diversify content monetization models, content creators become increasingly engaged in the aspirational work of making content for a living. This paper aims to shed light on the power imbalance between social media platforms and content creators, who rely on recommender systems to build their brands. Yet the complete opacity of algorithmic governance implemented through unilateral changes brought to recommender systems raises questions relating to unfair competition. The contribution made by this chapter is two-fold: first, we consult computer science literature to better understand how recommender systems work, and what technical features are relevant to the legal discussion; second, we discuss unfair competition according to US and EU law, to explore the advantages and disadvantages of solutions proposed by statutes and doctrines in this field.