The Instagram social network algorithm gives dissemination priority to images of scantily clad women and men, according to research by the digital newspaper Mediapart in collaboration with the European Data Journalism Network and Algorithm Watch.
The authors of the study, published this week, conclude that a photograph of a woman in underwear or a swimsuit is shown 1.6 times more than the same image but with more clothes, a rate that is 1.3 times higher in the case of men.
Instagram, a photo-sharing platform, which was acquired by the American giant Facebook in 2012 and is used by 138 million Europeans, including 18 million Spaniards, also takes into account the skin color of the people who appear in the images, add.
Based on the study of an algorithm patent registered in 2015 by two Facebook employees, which makes it possible to understand which photos Instagram grants or denies more visibility to, 2,400 contents -with 1,737 images- published between February and May of this year.
The aforementioned patent shows that the platform automatically evaluates each image posted on the web and attributes an "engagement score" based on the possibilities that users of the social network interact with the content.
"The patent specifically states that the gender, ethnicity and 'nudity status' of the people in the photo can be used to compute engagement metrics," based on color bands that it relates to skin color. , indicate the authors of the study, led by journalists Judith Duportail and Nicolas Kayser-Bril.
The researchers worked with 26 volunteers who used computer applications to collect information on the content viewed, from a total of 2,400 posts from 37 people from 12 different countries who professionally use Instagram to advertise their brands, especially in sectors such as food, tourism, sports, fashion or beauty.
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The installed programs automatically open that social network at regular time intervals and analyze what content appears in the top-ten shown to volunteers, which provides "an overview of what the platform considers most relevant to each volunteer." .
Posts containing photos of women in their underwear or bikinis were 54% more likely to appear on the volunteers' wall and those of topless men were 28% more likely, while those of landscapes or food were 60% less likely to be promoted by the Facebook affiliate.
Beyond other ethical considerations, the authors underline the economic impact that these practices can have for users who use Instagram professionally without having been correctly informed of the variables by which the social network disseminates more than one image.
However, they acknowledge that the nudity variable may not apply to all users of the social network, as Instagram offered more diverse content to "a small percentage" of the study volunteers.
"Instagram's algorithm is likely to favor nudity in general, but personalization or other factors limit this effect for some users," say the authors, noting that without access to Facebook's internal servers "it will always be impossible to reach definitive conclusions.
Mark Zuckerberg's network, parent of Instagram, has not responded to specific questions raised by journalists about an investigation it considers "imperfect" because it has not been carried out on a large scale.
"We rank the posts on your wall 'feed' based on the content and accounts you've shown interest in, not based on arbitrary factors like the presence of bathing suits," Facebook said.
