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Socio-technical barriers to contestation, accountability, and abandonment

Identify the technical, political, and social characteristics of real-world algorithmic deployments that pose barriers to contestation, accountability, and the organizational abandonment of harmful algorithmic systems.

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Background

The paper’s case analyses highlight factors such as access to systems, auditability, public notice, dependencies, and regulatory environments that shape the feasibility and timeline of abandonment, yet a systematic understanding of these barriers remains open.

Clarifying these characteristics can inform design, policy, and oversight practices that reduce obstacles to contestation and enable timely decommissioning of harmful deployments.

References

Thus, open questions remain when considering the possibility of abandoning harmful algorithms as a mechanism of harm mitigation and accountability: What types of events preceded and precipitated the decision to abandon an algorithm? How did impacted communities and other actors work together to contest harmful algorithms? What technical, political, or social characteristics of real-world algorithmic deployments posed barriers for contestation, accountability, and abandonment? How can future calls for abandonment be bolstered and supported?

— The Fall of an Algorithm: Characterizing the Dynamics Toward Abandonment (2404.13802 - Johnson et al., 21 Apr 2024) in Section 1: Introduction