The Algorithm Next Door - by Deepti Doshi - After Babel - 0 views
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dr tech on 12 Aug 25"And yet, what she's seeing is not actually our lived experience: Our city - Berkeley, CA - is not dangerous. Like many towns, cities, and neighborhoods around the country, we saw some kinds of crime increase during the pandemic, and decline more recently. My neighborhood within Berkeley is particularly safe: only a few non-violent crimes were reported on nearby streets in the last month - not bad for an urban college town. Unfortunately, Nextdoor can make anywhere seem dangerous. What Caitlin sees on her phone is a warped version of our area, mediated by Nextdoor's money-making algorithm. Isolated incidents from nearby areas are highlighted and made to seem like an epidemic of crime. "