Amazon's Book Bubbles
Since August 2023, the EU Digital Services Act has the online services with 45M+ users in the EU stepping up their game. Citizen safety, fighting disinformation, and algorithmic transparency are the new requirements. Amazon, challenging being a 'very large online platform', serves over 181 million users in the Union.
The article "Browsing Amazon's Book Bubbles" reveals how Amazon algorithmic recommendations trap users into book bubbles, some pushing disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Drawing on this article and on a thorough analysis of the Belgian bookstore, the study "The Amazing Library", analyses Amazon's algorithms within the DSA framework. In addition to misleading content, we show how Amazon fails to comply with its own policies regarding sexual content.