Twitter scraps image-cropping algorithm after allegations of racial bias

After social media exploded with allegations that Twitter's image-cropping algorithm had a racial bias, the company said it decided to drop automated cropping.

After social media exploded with allegations that Twitter's image-cropping algorithm had a racial bias, the company said it investigated and ultimately decided to drop automated cropping. Late last year, posts on Twitter that included large photos with a white and Black person went viral as users pointed out that the algorithm tended only to show a preview of the white person when it had to crop the photo to fit the platform's aspect ratio for images. A Twitter spokesperson said in a tweet in September 2020 that the feedback shows "it's clear that we've got more analysis to do." The social media giant on Wednesday released the outcomes of its quantitative research into the algorithm's potential bias, which found it had a 4% difference in favor of white individuals in comparisons of Black and white individuals. Moreover, there was a 7% difference in favor of white women in comparisons with Black women and a 2% difference in favor of white men in comparisons with Black men