{"id":77140,"date":"2026-02-05T09:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/889597845"},"modified":"2026-02-05T09:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:30:14","slug":"the-big-tech-show-inside-the-system-designed-to-keep-you-hooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/the-big-tech-show-inside-the-system-designed-to-keep-you-hooked\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Tech Show: Inside the system designed to keep you hooked"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0\" data-testid=\"article-header\"><\/header>\n<div class=\"indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4\">\n<figure data-testid=\"article-image-wrapper\" class=\"indo-a466b963_figure indo-a466b963_aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"indo-90c71878_root indo-90c71878_placeholder\">\n<div class=\"indo-90c71878_content\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><img 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https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/focus.independent.ie\/thumbor\/-x88O0MEIsvfmuPpI5ndX36OizY=\/0x0:429x286\/960x640\/prod-mh-ireland\/cac9a7a7-b991-4ac4-9518-bdc5df31703d\/ff2e5d41-b53a-4ce3-a3f8-c66f9e4b43d0\/cac9a7a7-b991-4ac4-9518-bdc5df31703d.jpg?ssl=1&w=1024&resize=1024&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/focus.independent.ie\/thumbor\/-x88O0MEIsvfmuPpI5ndX36OizY=\/0x0:429x286\/960x640\/prod-mh-ireland\/cac9a7a7-b991-4ac4-9518-bdc5df31703d\/ff2e5d41-b53a-4ce3-a3f8-c66f9e4b43d0\/cac9a7a7-b991-4ac4-9518-bdc5df31703d.jpg?ssl=1&w=1280&resize=1280&ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/focus.independent.ie\/thumbor\/-x88O0MEIsvfmuPpI5ndX36OizY=\/0x0:429x286\/960x640\/prod-mh-ireland\/cac9a7a7-b991-4ac4-9518-bdc5df31703d\/ff2e5d41-b53a-4ce3-a3f8-c66f9e4b43d0\/cac9a7a7-b991-4ac4-9518-bdc5df31703d.jpg?ssl=1&w=1600&resize=1600&ssl=1 1600w\" alt=\"The Big Tech Show\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/focus.independent.ie\/thumbor\/-x88O0MEIsvfmuPpI5ndX36OizY=\/0x0:429x286\/960x640\/prod-mh-ireland\/cac9a7a7-b991-4ac4-9518-bdc5df31703d\/ff2e5d41-b53a-4ce3-a3f8-c66f9e4b43d0\/cac9a7a7-b991-4ac4-9518-bdc5df31703d.jpg?ssl=1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\">The Big Tech Show<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"indo-c0ff676e_displayflex indo-223c7e83_root indo-1d70522a_marginbottom3 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-26838ee5_paddingbottom4 indo-26838ee5_paddingtop4\">\n<div class=\"indo-1d70522a_marginright2 indo-a5a70c0_boxcolumn\"><time class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-c0ff676e_displayblock indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular\" datetime=\"2026-02-05T07:02:03Z\" data-testid=\"article-date\">Today at 08:02<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-26838ee5_paddingleft0 indo-26838ee5_paddingright0 indo-7199e23_root indo-804a7bc3_root\" data-auth-intro=\"article\" data-testid=\"article-intro\">\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\">What is a recommender algorithm? Should they be switched off? And how do they create toxic narrative bubbles?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-26838ee5_paddingleft0 indo-26838ee5_paddingright0 indo-804a7bc3_root\" data-testid=\"article-body\">\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\">Johnny Ryan, digital rights campaigner and director of Enforce at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, joins Adrian on this week\u2019s episode of <span class=\"italic\">The Big Tech Show<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\">Johnny explains that recommender systems operate by continuously monitoring users\u2019 behaviour on digital platforms, such as what content they watch, pause or interact with. From this data, the system builds a profile of each user\u2019s preferences and psychological triggers. It then curates a personalised feed of content predicted to maximise the user\u2019s time on the platform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\">You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\"> <\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/acceptable.html\"> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; \u00e2\u0080\u0099s episode of The Big <span class=\"match\">Tech<\/span> Show. Johnny explains that recommender &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}