NOT MY TYPE

Automating Sexual Racism in Online Dating

APRYL WILLIAMS, with a Foreword by SAFIYA

UMOJA NOBLE

SWIPING RIGHT IN A DATING APP SEEMS LIKE A PERSONAL CHOICE – BUT REALLY, IT PUTS SEXUAL RACISM AT YOUR FINGERTIPS.

In the world of online dating, race-based discrimination is not only tolerated, but encouraged, as part of a pervasive belief that it is simply a neutral, personal choice about one’s romantic partner. Indeed, it is so much a part of our inherited wisdom about dating and romance that it actually directs the algorithmic infrastructures of most major online dating platforms, such that they openly reproduce racist and sexist hierarchies. In Not My Type: Automating Sexual Racism in Online Dating, Apryl Williams presents a socio-technical exploration of dating platforms’ algorithms, their lack of transparency, the legal and ethical discourse in these companies’ community guidelines, and accounts from individual users in order to argue that sexual racism is a central feature of today’s online dating culture. She discusses this reality in the context of facial recognition and sorting software as well as user experiences, drawing parallels to the long history of eugenics and banned interracial partnerships. Ultimately, Williams calls for both a reconceptualization of the technology and policies that govern dating agencies, and also a reexamination of sociocultural beliefs about attraction, beauty, and desirability.

Source: US Patent 10,203.845 B2

Apryl Williams is a jointly appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan in the Department of Communication & Media and the Digital Studies Institute. She is also a Senior Fellow in Trustworthy AI and a Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

FEBRUARY 2024 248 pages | 6 x 9

1 table, 5 figures, 10 halftones

Paper $28.00 (£23.99) AC 9781503635050

Cloth $90.00 (£78.00) SDT 9781503635043 eBook 9781503637610

Sociology