THE ALGORITHM DOESN’T LOVE EVERYONE – Pride Magazine

Is Social Media Hiding Black Women?

Standfirst

Every swipe, every like and every video is decided by an algorithm most of us will never see. Social media platforms insist the rules apply equally to everyone. Yet thousands of Black women believe they’re working twice as hard for half the visibility. Is it coincidence, or is bias quietly being coded into the digital world? Pride investigates.

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If Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are the new high street, then the algorithm is the shopkeeper deciding who gets the best window display.

The problem?

Nobody knows exactly how that shopkeeper makes those decisions.

We’re constantly told that social media is the great equaliser. Talent rises. Creativity wins. Hard work gets rewarded.

It’s a comforting story.

It’s also one that an increasing number of Black women no longer believe.

Spend five minutes talking to Black content creators and you’ll hear familiar frustrations. A beauty tutorial that suddenly reaches only a fraction of the usual audience. A discussion about race that mysteriously disappears from recommendations. A creator who spends years building a loyal community while watching someone else, often with similar content, become an overnight sensation.

Are these isolated experiences?

Or are they signs of something bigger?

The truth is that no one outside the technology companies knows exactly how modern algorithms work. Platforms guard them like state secrets, updating them constantly in the name of improving the user experience.

But secrecy creates suspicion.

And suspicion grows when people’s lived experiences don’t match the promises.

The Invisible Editor

Think of an algorithm as an invisible editor.

Every second it decides which videos appear on your screen, which stories deserve another chance and which creators quietly…