Chapter 35: Quiz

Global Disparities: How Algorithmic Addiction Hits Different Around the World

22 multiple-choice questions. Select the best answer for each.

Question 1. According to the chapter, what was the approximate global internet penetration rate as of 2022?

A) 38 percent B) 63 percent C) 79 percent D) 91 percent

Question 2. Facebook's "Free Basics" program was banned in India in 2016 by the telecom regulator TRAI on which grounds?

A) Evidence that Facebook was using Free Basics to conduct unauthorized surveillance on Indian users B) Violation of net neutrality principles, by providing access to Facebook's curated services while not providing access to the broader internet C) Allegations that Free Basics was used to spread political misinformation during Indian elections D) Technical incompatibility with Indian mobile network infrastructure standards

Question 3. The "Facebook IS the internet" phenomenon primarily refers to which situation?

A) Facebook's market share exceeding 50% of social media use in a country B) Facebook acquiring competing platforms to the point of monopolizing social media C) Users who first accessed the internet through Facebook-mediated channels and who do not distinguish between Facebook and the broader internet D) Countries where Facebook's lobbying has successfully blocked regulatory oversight of the internet

Question 4. Approximately how many languages does Facebook support with full content moderation capabilities, compared to the approximately 7,000 living languages?

A) About 7 languages B) About 50 languages C) About 250 languages D) About 2,000 languages

Question 5. According to the chapter, why does content moderation investment follow advertising revenue rather than social impact?

A) Platform companies are legally required to prioritize investments that generate return for shareholders B) Content moderation in languages with fewer native speakers is technically impossible with current AI C) Investment in safety infrastructure is made where the advertising market is largest, which is concentrated in high-income markets with a small number of languages D) International regulations prevent platforms from investing in content moderation in countries outside their home jurisdiction

Question 6. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar concluded that Facebook:

A) Was an innocent bystander to violence it had no power to prevent B) Had responded adequately to warnings about hate speech by training additional Burmese speakers C) Played a "determining role" in spreading hate speech that contributed to ethnic cleansing D) Was the primary organizer of anti-Rohingya violence through its recommendation systems

Question 7. Which of the following best describes the mechanism by which Facebook's algorithm contributed to anti-Rohingya content spread in Myanmar?

A) Facebook deliberately programmed its algorithm to suppress pro-Rohingya content B) The engagement-optimization algorithm rewarded the most emotionally charged content, which in Myanmar's context meant inflammatory ethnic and religious content, without any Burmese moderation to constrain it C) Facebook's advertising systems allowed anti-Rohingya groups to purchase targeted advertising against the Rohingya population D) Facebook's algorithm detected Rohingya content and automatically removed it, amplifying the appearance that Rohingya perspectives were not credible

Question 8. Research and journalism documented evidence that Facebook received specific warnings about genocide risk in Myanmar before the 2017 crisis. What does this documented evidence imply about the failure?

A) It implies the failure was an unforeseeable accident, since the warnings could not have predicted the specific timing of the crisis B) It implies the failure cannot be characterized as an unforeseeable accident, since specific credible warnings were not adequately acted upon C) It implies Facebook is legally liable under existing U.S. law for the harms that resulted D) It implies that researchers and civil society organizations bear primary responsibility for failing to be more persuasive in their warnings

Question 9. In India, WhatsApp misinformation contributed to which documented pattern of violence between 2017 and 2019?

A) Attacks on journalists reporting on government corruption B) Inter-party political violence during national elections C) Mob lynchings triggered by false messages about child abductions and criminals D) Organized looting coordinated through WhatsApp groups in major cities

Question 10. WhatsApp's response to the India misinformation crisis included which of the following measures?

A) Implementing real-time content scanning of messages to detect misinformation before delivery B) Limiting the number of times a message could be forwarded and adding a "frequently forwarded" label C) Requiring users in India to verify their identity before being allowed to join groups D) Partnering with Indian courts to allow judicial orders for message content disclosure

Question 11. The chapter describes the 2018 Brazilian presidential election as the first "WhatsApp election." What does this phrase primarily mean?

A) Bolsonaro was the first candidate to run his entire campaign through WhatsApp rather than traditional media B) Brazilian law for the first time allowed political advertising through messaging platforms C) An encrypted messaging platform played a decisive role in political information distribution, with minimal ability for real-time monitoring or counter-misinformation D) WhatsApp was officially endorsed by the Brazilian Electoral Court as the primary medium for candidate communication with voters

Question 12. What specific feature of WhatsApp's architecture made monitoring and countering coordinated political misinformation particularly difficult in the Brazil case?

A) WhatsApp's interface made it difficult to forward messages, slowing misinformation spread B) WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption means the platform cannot see message content, making coordinated distribution campaigns invisible to the platform in real time C) WhatsApp's terms of service prohibited political content, meaning misinformation had to be framed as personal opinion D) WhatsApp's group size limit of 256 members prevented misinformation from reaching the scale needed to influence the election

Question 13. The January 8, 2023 attack on Brazilian democratic institutions was connected to which WhatsApp-distributed narrative?

A) Claims that the new president was planning to arrest political opponents B) False stories about crimes committed by members of the incoming government C) The "stolen election" narrative — claims that the 2022 election was fraudulently won by Lula — distributed through WhatsApp for over a year before the election D) Religious misinformation claiming that Lula was anti-Christian, distributed through church WhatsApp networks

Question 14. China's domestic social media platforms (WeChat, Weibo, Douyin) differ from Western platforms in which fundamental way?

A) They use more advanced AI recommendation systems that are more accurate at predicting user preferences B) They operate under direct government authority with requirements for real-name registration, data storage in China, and cooperation with government data requests C) They are owned by their users collectively rather than by a single corporation D) They do not use advertising revenue, relying instead on subscription fees

Question 15. Research cited in this chapter found that TikTok's recommendation algorithm:

A) Is demonstrably superior to competing platforms in showing users content they find genuinely satisfying B) Shows no evidence of politically motivated content curation — decisions are made purely on user engagement signals C) Systematically suppresses content about topics sensitive to the Chinese government D) Deliberately amplifies pro-Chinese government political content in Western markets

Question 16. The "liar's dividend" concept introduced in Chapter 33 is particularly relevant to the TikTok debate because:

A) TikTok has been documented as the primary platform for the spread of AI-generated deepfake videos B) Concerns about Chinese government influence on TikTok's algorithm cannot be definitively proven or disproven, allowing both valid national security concerns and bad-faith dismissal of those concerns to coexist C) TikTok's parent company ByteDance has explicitly used the liar's dividend to dismiss all concerns about its platform as fabricated Western propaganda D) TikTok users are significantly more susceptible to deepfake content than users of Western platforms

Question 17. Research by Sanjay Sharma and colleagues on algorithmic amplification found which of the following?

A) Black creators receive more algorithmic promotion than white creators as a result of diversity initiatives B) Black creators' content was systematically less likely to be recommended to users outside their existing follower base compared to comparable white creator content C) Racial disparities in algorithmic recommendation do not exist; only engagement rates determine distribution D) Platforms have fully resolved racial bias in recommendation through fairness-aware machine learning techniques

Question 18. The digital colonialism critique, as described in this chapter, draws a parallel between historical colonialism and contemporary platform deployment based primarily on which structural feature?

A) The use of social media platforms by Western governments to impose liberal democratic values on non-Western countries B) The physical infrastructure of platforms being owned by Western companies C) The asymmetric power relationship: platforms designed for and by Global North markets are deployed globally while extracting data from Global South users, with limited ability for affected communities to demand different terms D) The replacement of local languages with English as the dominant language of social media

Question 19. The "second-level digital divide" refers to which phenomenon?

A) The gap between users who have internet access and those who do not B) The gap between users who can afford smartphones and those who can only access social media on shared computers C) Differential quality of internet experience by socioeconomic status — including media literacy, access to alternative information sources, and knowledge of algorithmic systems — that produces significant inequalities in outcomes even among users who all have technical access D) The division between countries with 5G connectivity and those limited to 3G or 4G networks

Question 20. The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) addressed the global platform governance gap through which mechanism?

A) Extending EU jurisdiction to require all platforms operating anywhere in the world to follow EU standards B) Establishing a multinational treaty organization that coordinates platform governance across signatory countries C) Requiring very large online platforms operating in EU markets to submit to algorithmic auditing, transparency requirements, and risk assessments D) Imposing criminal liability on platform executives for harms caused by their platforms' algorithmic systems

Question 21. The chapter describes "attentional inequality" as which phenomenon?

A) The attention that social media platforms receive from regulators being distributed unevenly — larger platforms receive more scrutiny than smaller ones B) Algorithmic engagement optimization being most effective at extracting time and attention from users with the fewest alternative activities and social connections — conditions associated with lower income C) The unequal distribution of media attention to social media harms in different countries — with Western harms receiving more coverage than Global South harms D) The inequality in attention span between heavy social media users and non-users, with heavy users showing significantly shorter attention spans

Question 22. The Velocity Media sidebar in this chapter describes Dr. Aisha Johnson recommending a six-month delay in East African market expansion for what purpose?

A) Regulatory compliance — waiting for African governments to provide operating permits B) Competitive positioning — waiting for the market to develop further before entering C) Targeted investment in minimum viable content moderation infrastructure for the relevant languages and cultural contexts before deployment at scale D) Engineering preparation — ensuring the platform's technical infrastructure could handle the expected user growth

Answer Key

1. B
2. B
3. C
4. B
5. C
6. C
7. B
8. B
9. C
10. B
11. C
12. B
13. C
14. B
15. C
16. B
17. B
18. C
19. C
20. C
21. B
22. C