Using Digital Literacy to Combat Profit-Driven Platforms

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Running head: PROFIT DRIVEN NATURE OF PLATFORMS
Using Digital Literacy to Combat the Profit Driven Nature of Platforms
Zach Kanelis
Western Oregon University

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PROFIT DRIVEN NATURE OF PLATFORMS
Using Digital Literacy to Combat the Profit Driven Nature of Platforms
Social media and search engines have become a part of our everyday lives. Social media
platforms create a great space to interact with friends, share experiences, and foster new
relationships. Search engines, such as Google, provide an almost unlimited source of information
at the tips of our fingers. Google globally does “at least 63,000 searchers per second, but maybe
more, at least 5.5 billion searches per day, but maybe more” (Sullivan, 2016, para. 4). Social
media is no different at about 3.9 billion users worldwide, with around 58 percent of the world's
population active every day and over 90 percent of millennials active every day (Dean, 2021,
para. 10). So, with social media and search engines playing such a prominent role in our daily
lives, teaching students digital literacy and educating students on the profit driven nature of these
platforms should be included in curriculums starting in elementary school, and continuing into
college. The purpose of this paper is to advocate for teaching students digital literacy so that
students can understand and navigate the world of profit driven platforms.
While sites like Google and Facebook are great for a vast number of reasons, they come
with risks and downsides that are not discussed enough. The bottom line is these platforms that
billions of people use are businesses with one goal: to make money. For this reason platforms do
not always have a users’ best interest in mind. Large platforms harvest large amounts of personal
data for marketing, control what users see, and moderate users’ posts according to their own
guidelines. This is why educators have a responsibility to their students to educate them on the
profit-driven nature of platforms and teach digital literacy. It is important for students to know as
they use platforms daily for research and entertainment. This paper examines how the profit
driven nature of platforms effects a users results, interactions, personal information, and why it
needs to be discussed more in schools, and how digital literacy is a crucial skill students need.

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The Profit-Driven Nature of Platforms
Largely as a result of Google’s ad business, Google joined the $100 billion club, earning
about $110 billion in 2017. Google and Facebook combined bring in over 60% of online ad
spending in the United States. These figures are expected to continue to grow as large platforms
such as these focus on generating ad revenue (Fiegerman, 2018, para.1). In summary, Google
and Facebook are thought of as being a search engine and a social media platform first, but they
are both businesses who are driven by profits. For day to day use of these platforms and others
this information does not necessarily change how people use them. In educational settings
however, it should at the very least be considered that most platforms are affected by monetary
influences. Singer and Conger (2019) report that Google (which owns YouTube) had to pay $170
million dollar fine because YouTube had “knowingly and illegally harvested personal
information from children and used it to profit by targeting them with ads” (Para. 1). This means
that companies are collecting data on young children as a way to increase profits. Youtube was
even found to be tracking kids’ online activity without parental consent.
Algorithms
Platforms use algorithms; these algorithms decide what is trending, what posts appear on
your feed, what news stories to feature, and what results appear at the top of searches.
Algorithms are defined in different ways; going forward this paper uses the following definition
for algorithms: “a recipe that describes the exact steps needed for the computer to solve a
problem or reach a goal” (Meinecke, para. 3). In other words algorithms make decisions
regarding almost every aspect of a platform and are often considered to be neutral. The idea of
neutrality in algorithms however is not accurate.

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This idea of neutrality really does not exist. Search engines and social media platforms
alike have employees that create the algorithms. The people who create them have their own
opinions and beliefs that can and do impact the algorithms. Platforms are created with the goal of
making money and so are the algorithms they use: getting people to use their site is how they do
this. They want people to interact, like posts, share stories, and search for information. These
interactions are so critical they create algorithms which create interactions. Bucher (2018) further
argues that “algorithms are political in the sense that they help to make the world appear in
certain ways rather than others” (p. 3). In other words a generic search for information could be
impacted by political beliefs and ideologies. When looking for information keeping any political
biases to a minimum is important. Anything that impacts results in such a big way should be
considered a factor when conducting research online. Even if a user is not looking for academic
information the results they are getting from searches and what they are seeing in their feeds are
controlled by algorithms.
A good algorithm such as one Facebook uses sets up seemingly incidental interactions
with old friends, people users have not talked to in years. One big way they do this is through the
use of birthday notifications, when users get a notification telling them it is someone’s birthday,
it creates a social obligation, and often users feel like they need to go post on their wall. Certain
content appears on each user’s feed with the goal of creating interactions, new relationships, and
re-connecting them with old friends. Platforms need people to interact and use their site daily to
make money. These seemingly random interactions and connections are all created, behind the
scenes, by algorithms. These algorithms are created by individuals who are looking out for their
company’s interests.
Profits from Advertising

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If large profit driven corporations continue to be our primary source of information, then
students need to be educated about how this affects the information they are receiving. As
students search for information they should understand that the results that they are getting are
not necessarily the best, most accurate, or even the most searched. Noble (2018) explained that
“Google Search is in fact an advertising platform, not intended to solely serve as a public
information resource in that way” (p.38). Google does provide information, but they have no
real obligation to provide the best or most accurate information.
Google uses advertising algorithms as opposed to information algorithms. Google uses
search engine optimization, a multi-billion-dollar operation, which prioritizes certain keywords
in searches. Yet students regularly use Google to find information, often unaware of this. As a
society the information found on Google is generally trusted and rarely questioned. Noble argues
that private companies like Google should not have so much power and control over the flow of
information. While this might be the ideal situation, it is not the world we live in. Students
should know that paid advertisements dominate top search engine results and be able to identify
paid advertising as opposed to other results.
Moderation
Paid advertising and search engine optimization are not the only ways the profit driven
nature of platforms affects users. Moderation of platforms plays a key role in what users see.
Social media sites are viewed as spaces where anyone can freely post whatever they want to.
This is not necessarily the case. Platforms are constantly moderating users posts, comments, apps
that are created, and news feeds. Moderation is very difficult because of the sheer number of
users that visit and post on sites daily. Also, the decision of what to moderate and what not to
moderate is no easy task. A lot of content can walk the line of being too vulgar, offensive, or not

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meeting a platform’s community guidelines. Gillespie (2018) says moderation is hard “because it
is wholly unclear what the standards should be; and because one failure can incur enough public
outrage to overshadow a million quiet successes” (p.9). People don’t hear about good
moderation, only complaints and outrage when people do not agree with how you are
moderating. Moderation is necessary for platforms to keep users happy, and visiting their site. If
users are constantly offended, see too much pornographic, violent, racists, and sexist content on a
platform then they will use another that better meets their needs. If users leave a platform, then
the platform begins losing money.
While this does put a lot of pressure on platforms to get moderation right, they do have
safe harbor on their side. This safe harbor is a result of social media platforms falling under the
protection of section 230 of U.S telecommunication law (Gillespie, 2018). Under the law,
platforms are not considered publishers, and are given the ability to moderate as they see fit. This
benefits them because they are not liable for what is posted, as long as they remove what they are
required to by law. Platforms can then use this as a justification to upset customers, saying they
can’t catch and control everything. Deflecting users' anger away from themselves can help deter
users from leaving which is good for business because more users equals more money.
The safe harbor laws that platforms have been benefiting from have a few issues. These
laws are somewhat outdated, and were never created with social media platforms in mind. When
safe harbor laws were being created, social media platforms did not exist in the way they do
today. Platforms continue to fight to keep their protection under section 230, not only because it
shields them from liability, but also because it allows platforms to impose their own rules and
guidelines. A platform’s rules are often much stricter than required by law. With such guidelines
and rules in place, it allows them to moderate more than is required by law. Gillespie (2018)

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says, “in terms of impact on public discourse and the lived experience of users, the rules these
platforms impose probably matter more than the legal restrictions under which they function.”
(p.34) Deciding what to put into rules and guidelines is another business decision for platforms
that have the ability to control what users see. Something that has the potential to impact a
student’s ability to gather information. For example historical images deemed too graphic could
be taken off a platform even though they are accurate and being used for education purposes.
Platforms generally follow their own rules, and they will act to protect their own interest first.
They do not have motive to keep a graphic image or text up even if it is educational, art, or
historical. The next section will explore digital literacy, a way for students to gain a better
understanding of how such platforms operate so they can better navigate them.
Digital Literacy
Digital literacy has become a more and more important issue in education and society as
a whole. Even with the increased efforts in the education system to better student’s digital
literacy there are still many inconsistencies. There are programs that are trying to combat these
issues. One digital literacy category under the “Common Core State Standards Initiative”
(CCSS) is that students should be able to “Demonstrate the ability to use technology for research,
critical thinking, decision-making, communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation”
(Hosseini, 2018, p.16). If students are expected to use technology for research and
decision-making then educators should first be expected to teach them about the risks and
downsides of platforms, many of which stem from the profit driven nature of platforms.
Challenges to Teaching Digital Literacy
There are many challenges to educating students on technological issues that should be
addressed. Changing curriculum takes time and technology is a rapidly changing field which

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creates its own issues. Noble (2018) discusses how a book written today on a technological issue
is almost immediately out of date by the time it is published. Nothing about the internet and
technology is stagnant; they are complex and ever changing which makes it a difficult topic to
teach. Hosseini (2018) discusses some obstacles that many educators face. She says, “Teachers
identified the high student to teacher ratio, lack of time to plan and teach technology lessons, and
students’ limited self-management and independence skills as major impediments to digital
literacy instruction in the early elementary grades” (p. 5). This means that many teachers do not
believe they have the time to teach digital literacy and that curriculums are already overcrowded.
Even so, in today’s technological era educators need to adjust curriculums to focus more on
digital literacy and technological issues. Students need to understand how large platforms operate
and make money. If all large platforms care about is profits they have little incentive to protect
student’s data, or provide them with the best information.
Finding information on the internet is extremely easy. Simply get online and search what
you are looking for and thousands of results will come up instantly. This convenient, readily
available information that pops up in search results comes with baggage. Paid advertising and
algorithms determine what results appear. While it seems great that there are so many results
easily found, Pool (1997) says that this is part of the issue. She says, “getting 30,000 hits after a
search is not going to help you find important information.” (p. 2) It is common to be told that
Wikipedia should not be used as a source for a paper. Often that is where the guidance ends.
Discourse on how to identify what results are appearing because of paid advertising seems just as
important. Everything that makes a platform a business, means it is not designed to find the best
information all the time.
Approaches to Teaching Digital Literacy

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Digital literacy has become more important over the past few years with the explosion of
technology and availability of information. Carolyn Pool (1997) defines digital literacy as “the
ability to understand information and—more important—to evaluate and integrate information in
multiple formats that the computer can deliver” (p.1). Using this idea that you must be able to
critically evaluate information to effectively use it, the ability to evaluate information should be
taught and prioritized from a young age as it is important in digital literacy. Educators cannot
expect quality research, without first setting the expectation that students know how to find and
evaluate information.
There are ways in which students can use Google more efficiently to find better
information. Getting on Google and simply using the search box to search for something utilizes
only the most basic feature of Google search. Using Google’s advanced search feature is one way
to narrow down results. This can be helpful to find exact phrases or exclude things from
searches. Another feature Google offers that is easy to use is Google Scholar. This does not
necessarily fix all the issues discussed so far, but searching using Google Scholar should yield
better information than a normal Google search. At least with regards to trying to find
information. Google Scholar finds articles, theses, books, and more that are considered to be
scholarly sources. From there you can look at related sources to determine if it is truly a good
source to use. Searches done using Google Scholar rank sources based on who published them,
how often the source is cited in other scholarly literature, and who the author is. Of course, that
is coming from Google, so still be cautious when looking for information. Google, like all
platforms, is a business.
Educators have an increasing number of resources at their disposal as they look to
educate students on digital literacy. Libraries are often a good place to start, as they can provide

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resources on how to find reliable information. They have databases with scholarly articles or can
show you how to find them. Libraries are adapting to the rapid change in technologies by
offering more online courses and resources. There are also many great online resources out there
that can be used. It is important to use online resources when educating students on digital
literacy. Edutopia covers ethics, self-protection online, and cyberbullying. Be Internet Awesome
from Google talks about digital communication and understanding digital footprint. These and
other sites can be used as tools to aid in building digital literacy (Stauffer, 2020). A ton of
different options exist, the key is to address challenges teachers face. This could mean hiring
another teacher to instruct on digital literacy, or adding training for teachers so they feel more
confident in teaching it to their students. It could also mean adjusting curriculum to make time
for digital literacy as it is more important now than ever.
Conclusion
With major platforms being so profit driven, educators should ensure that students are
aware of how that affects them. Since platforms are able to create their own rules and guidelines,
moderation may be affecting what users are able to see. Also, paid advertising affects top results
on search engines and potentially biased algorithms control news feeds and trending posts. All
these factors, and more, should be discussed with students. Educating them from a young age on
these often-unknown issues that come with using platforms to get information. Curriculums need
to be adjusted further to more accurately represent the world we live in, one where large,
for-profit corporations are our primary source of information. Creating time for digital literacy in
curriculum is important if students are to understand how to navigate platforms. It is crucial to
develop their ability to find and critically evaluate information. Also, for students to understand
that these sites are harvesting large amounts of personal information for marketing. Addressing

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digital literacy will help students gain valuable skills that will help them throughout their years in
school, and in their professional lives after.

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Gillespie, T. (2018). Custodians of the internet. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
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Pool, C. R. (1997). A New Digital Literacy: A Conversation with Paul Gilster.
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Stauffer, B. (2020). How to Teach Digital Literacy Skills. Digital Curriculum for CTE & Elective
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