Code access is a collective capability issue benefiting non-coders too

Evidence

While the value of such rights may seem meaningless to those who don’t personally have the technical skills to inspect and modify code, their denial prohibits user communities as a whole from collectively carrying out these activities in ways that would likely benefit non-coders. For example, access to code would enable user communities to better understand and govern the types of algorithms that mediate search results or social media news feeds, and work against filter bubbles (Pariser, 2011), racism (Noble, 2018), and other unjust or undesirable features of our algorithmic environments. … Access to code would also allow user communities to better determine the extent of data collection practices software imposed on users, such as whether or not smartphones are “listening” to users—a question that is frequently brought up by reporters and which is impossible to technically determine without ability to access code (Nichols, 2018). — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 526

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the collective-action framing in ‘Opting out of the Legal System’ where group-level capabilities outperform individual bargaining. — connects to: Closed proprietary code functions as a form of Freirean prescription over users — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 529; Individual data-rights enforcement cannot succeed without collective action — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1548

Broader Connections

• Individual data-rights enforcement cannot succeed without collective action #expands (0.70) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1548