Algorithmic Rape Jokes in Amazon

 

A t-shirt company called Solid Gold Bomb was caught selling shirts with the slogan “KEEP CALM and RAPE A LOT” on them. They also sold shirts like “KEEP CALM and CHOKE HER” and “KEEP CALM and PUNCHHER”. The Internet—especially the UK Internet—exploded.

How did this happen?

“Algorithms!”

[…]

Pete Ashton argues that—because the jokes were generated by a misbehaving script—“as mistakes go it’s a fairly excusable one, assuming they now act on it”. He suggests that the reason people got so upset was a lack of digital literacy. I suggest that the reason people got upset was that a company’s shoddy QA practices allowed a rape joke to go live.

Anyone who’s worked with software should know that the actual typing of code is a relatively small part of the overall programming work. Designing the program before you start coding, and debugging it after you’ve created it is the bulk of the job.

Generative programs are force multipliers. Small initial decisions can have massive consequences. The greater your reach, the greater your responsibility to manage your output. When Facebook makes an error that affects 0.1% of users, it means 1 million people got fucked up.

‘We didn’t cause a rape joke to happen, we allowed a rape joke to happen,’ is not a compelling excuse. It betrays a lack of digital literacy.

Interesting comments from people:

People, enough of the ‘A big algorithm did it and ran away’ explanations (eg. http://iam.peteashton.com/keep-calm-rape-tshirt-amazon/ …) – algorithms have politics too – @gsvoss

 

I’m REALLY tired of the “it’s the computer program” excuse for inexcusable behaviour. Behind every computer algorithm, a human being is sitting there programming. Use your “real” brains, you idiots, and join the real world. There are no excuses for this. None. Period. – jen

 

Not good enough, I’m afraid. The same company are still selling a t-shirt that says ‘Keep calm and hit her’.
No computer generated that. Why, for example, doesn’t it say ‘hit him’?
Because someone ran an eye over it to ensure it was sufficiently ‘funny’ I would say.
If they were genuinely horrified by what their algorithm produced that t-shirt would be gone too. Seems to me they’re just a bunch of sad gits. – Ita Ryan

 

 

Ref: Algorithmic Rape Jokes in the Library of Babel – QuietBabylon (via algopop)