Data analytics inherit eugenic assumptions that reward sameness and sort people into micro-identities

Evidence

Algorithmic data analytics, according to Wendy Chun, descend from eugenics and presume a fundamental “homophily” to ground all sociality—enforcing a “love of the same” that tends to exclude all that deviates from this sameness. As Chun argues, even though data analytics initially were framed as leading to a kind of postrace, postidentity “utopia,” “social networks perpetuate angry microidentities through ‘default’ variables and axioms. By using data analytics, individual differences and similarities are actively sought, shaped, and instrumentalized in order to capture and shape social clusters.” — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 37

Categorization

• XREF: Chun’s lineage from eugenics to homophily-based analytics connects to broader critiques of racial science in data mining literature.
• SEED: The claim that recommendation systems inherit eugenic founding assumptions is a strong hook for an essay on how platform ‘neutrality’ masks discriminatory sorting.