Impacts of the Filter-Bubble Effect on Fake News Engagement

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze, from a legal point of view, the consequences surrounding digital platforms that use applications of algorithms known as “filter bubble”, that create a unique information environment for each user, completely changing the way information is consumed. Starting our analysis from the socio-political point of view, demonstrating the natural and psychosocial tendency of human beings to develop and exercise their intellectual faculties through the need to form a collective — we demonstrate how this human need can be explored by algorithmic application providers as they intentionally induce the creation of digital bubbles. A filter bubble is nothing more than a state of intellectual isolation and ideological reinforcement that can result from personalized searches, where an algorithm on certain websites selects what information a user would like to see based on information provided by the user himself, such as location, clicks data, internet behaviour and search history. Based on the current legal system, pertinent to the understanding of the matter addressed, it is inferred that applications of “filter bubbles” thus hurt the exercise of individual rights and guarantees, provided for in constitutional systems and diffuse rules, resulting in civil liability for the offense committed.