Be Online Smart is a campaign by the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) and its network of 14 national hubs. It aims to raise awareness about how algorithms shape our online experience — from the news we read to the videos we watch. Recommendation systems help us discover content we enjoy, but they can also limit what we see, amplify disinformation, and reinforce bias. By understanding how algorithms work and how they influence our online lives, we can make smarter choices, spot misinformation, and stay better informed.
The role of recommendation algorithms in accessing information, knowledge and content in the online world
Many of the tools – websites, search engines, social media networks – use algorithms to organise the information that they show to us.
What is an algorithm?
An algorithm is a set of instructions or rules that a computer uses to carry out a task, solve a problem or make a decision.
Algorithms are used in many different contexts online, and depending on the task at hand, they can be relatively straightforward – such as putting a list of names in alphabetical order – or highly complex.
Social media and search engines use recommendation algorithms to decide what posts or search results to show each individual user.
Music streaming services use them to predict what music a particular listener might enjoy, based on the other music they are listening to, or on when, where (location and device used) and how (time spent) they are listening. TV and film streaming services use them in a similar way.
Why do we need to know how they work?
It’s important to understand a bit about how algorithms (and those who build them!) shape your experience of the online world, along with your perception of and interaction with the offline world. Algorithms are used to make decisions about the content you see on different sites, and they have significant influence over the knowledge and information that you are exposed to.
Many social media networks and other websites make money through advertising. Therefore, in order to make more money they want to keep your attention by keeping you on their sites or apps, and keeping you coming back.
Therefore, their algorithms will often aim to show you content that they think you want to see, and content they think you want to share.
Algorithms: friend and foe
– Algorithms help to improve your experience of the digital world
Algorithms can ensure that you see relevant and interesting content online. For example, on a social network this might be updates from your closest friends, rather than from those you don’t know very well. Or on a news aggregator, this could be stories from the news organisations you trust the most, rather than those you don’t often read. And on a music or TV streaming service, this might enable you to discover songs and TV shows that you love but wouldn’t have found otherwise.
– But they can also help spread disinformation
…and allow it to very quickly ‘go viral’.
Disinformation often provokes a strong emotional reaction and prompts sharing in a moment of outrage, excitement or disbelief. Algorithms can be exploited to amplify this sort of content, as they will interpret it as content that people want to see.
– And keep you in a ‘bubble’
What the algorithms choose for you to see is not the same as what everyone else sees, from Google searches, to social media posts, to recommendations of what to watch next on YouTube. This means that you might not be getting the whole picture online – you could think of this as getting stuck in an information bubble.
So what can you do?
Visuals of the campaign
