Codes of conduct for algorithmic news recommendation: The Yandex.News controversy in Russia

Abstract

In Russia, since 2011, the Yandex.News aggregator (Yandex.Novosti) — the Russian equivalent to Google News — has been suspected of political bias in the context of protests against electoral fraud followed by the Ukrainian crisis. This article first outlines the issues associated with automated news recommendation systems, their role as “algorithmic gatekeepers” and the questions they raise in terms of news diversity and possible manipulation. It then analyses the controversies which have developed around Yandex.News, particularly since the authorities have decided to regulate the way it operates through a law adopted in 2016. Finally, it provides an audit of Yandex.News aggregation in 2020, through a quantitative analysis of its database of sources and of the Top 5 results presented on the Yandex homepage. It shows the discrepancy between the diversity of the Russian online mediasphere and the narrowness of the Yandex.News media sample. This research contributes to the sociology of digital platforms and the study of “governance by algorithms”, showing how the Yandex news aggregator is a key asset in the Russian government’s overall disciplining of the country’s media and digital public sphere, in an ongoing effort to assert “digital sovereignty”.

A story of (non)compliance, bias, and conspiracies: How Google and Yandex represented Smart Voting during the 2021 parliamentary elections in Russia

“…Since Yandex is a Russian domestic corporation, it is generally thought to be more responsive to government pressure (Daucé & Loveluck, 2021) while Google is seen by many Russian NGOs as a protector of civil liberties (Bronnikova & Zaytseva, 2021) Compared with Google, Yandex was more intensively targeted by Russian regulatory mechanisms (Wijermars, 2021) and demonstrated more politically biased performance during periods of political contention (Kravets & Toepfl, 2021). However, the Russian authorities also put increasing pressure on Google as demonstrated by the growing number of requests for removing results from its search, particularly since the second half of 2020 (Figure 1).…”

Different platforms, different plots? The Kremlin-controlled search engine Yandex as a resource for Russia’s informational influence in Belarus during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…As suggested in extant research, key resources of Russia’s informational influence abroad include Russia’s two official news broadcasters, RT (formerly, Russia Today ) and Sputnik ( Kragh and Asberg, 2017 ; Wagnsson, 2022 ), so-called ‘troll armies’ ( Daucè and Loveluck, 2021 ), social networks ( Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki ; Golova, 2020 ), regional proxy media outlets not openly linked to Russia ( Navumau, 2020 ) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs; Kragh and Asberg, 2017 ). As this overview of the literature illustrates, a broad range of resources for Russia’s foreign communication apparatus have been scrutinised.…”

“…For instance, researchers have analysed the diversity of search results ( Puschmann, 2019 ; Steiner et al, 2020 ; Trielli and Diakopoulos, 2019 ; Unkel and Haim, 2019 ; Urman et al, 2021a ), examined the presence of various biases in search results ( Kravets and Toepfl, 2021 ; Makhortykh et al, 2022 ) and investigated the influence of search personalisation ( Haim et al, 2018 ; Kliman–Silver et al., 2015 ). Auditing specifically the Kremlin-controlled search engine Yandex, extant research has demonstrated that the algorithms of this Russia-based intermediary are often biased toward the interests of the country’s ruling elites ( Daucè and Loveluck, 2021 ; Kravets and Toepfl, 2021 ; Makhortykh et al, 2022 ; Wijermars, 2021 ). These studies, however, discussed Yandex’s algorithms and their impact solely within Russia.…”

Infrastructuringdigital sovereignty: a research agenda for an infrastructure-based sociology of digital self-determination practices

“…In the past three years, the project team has undertaken an infrastructure-based sociology of the RuNet, focusing on the technical devices and assets involved in surveillance and censorship, and on the strategies of resistance and circumvention "by infrastructure" that follow. Our fieldwork sites have ranged from the emblematic "Telegram ban" and its socio-technical ramifications unveiling tensions between the "sovereign Internet" governmental narrative and infrastructure-based resistance practices to the political bias-related controversies surrounding the Yandex.News aggregator (Daucé and Loveluck, 2021), and from the paradox related to the use of Google services in Russia, which sees several Russian NGOs considering the Internet giant as a protector of civil liberties (Bronnikova and Zaytseva, 2021) to the particular definitions of freedom and circumvention enacted by shadow mass-literature online libraries, made illegal in 2013 (Ostromooukhova, 2021).…”