
Netflix Shows Different Skin Colors on Movie Title Cards Depending on Your Race - sharkweek
https://exstreamist.com/netflix-shows-different-skin-colors-on-movie-title-cards-depending-on-your-assumed-race/
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dm8
I didn't see different poster for same movie although I'm not a caucasian.
Maybe it's just not your ethnicity but also your previous viewing habits. For
example, if you watched lot of movies with hispanic or Indian or african-
american actors then you might get those posters to incentivize you to watch
more.

I'm pretty sure they have exhaustive feature set (not just demographic
information) in their model to select the cover poster for user.

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hactually
It's all about engaging. It's actual leveraging the biases of the individual
rather than Netflix. _You 're_ being racist, not netflix which is kinda funny.

There's data points to indicate you're more likely to watch X if they show
A,B,C title cards. When you do, that reinforces that link. In aggregate it
feeds data points to Netflix that lets them A/B test the needed graphics.

Customer biases driving biases/business decisions.

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King-Aaron
This just in, based on the data they collect on a users habits, companies
adjust their marketing to suit demographics.

So... is the data racist? Is the user _more inclined to click on things with
people from their demographic?_ Is it really Netflix at fault for aligning
their content to a users browsing habits?

It appears to me that Netflix didn't "assume" her demographic. They very
accurately identified her based on data _she unwittingly provided them_ and
they adjusted the content according to what she would statistically most
likely view. In the same way almost all modern companies do.

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Jyaif
[https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/artwork-
personalization-...](https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/artwork-
personalization-c589f074ad76)

~~~
smacktoward
There you have it. They don’t even see it as something they should be
embarrassed about. It’s something to be written up for their engineering blog.
They’re _proud_ of it.

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cmcguinness
I guess the question is whether Netflix is generating the graphics or the
movie producers supply varying content targeting different demographics.

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gee_totes
It seems interesting that with all its investment in original content, Netflix
would rather re-skin "white" movies than invest in "black" movies.

I wonder if this is a sign of institutional racism at work and lack of
diversity.

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intopieces
>, Netflix would rather re-skin "white" movies than invest in "black" movies.

Citation needed, here. Netflix could be doing both.

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gee_totes
I know, right? I just may not be seeing the black movies because I'm a white
customer.

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intopieces
Or you may not be seeing black movies because you don't watch black movies. I
think the only solution here is the "Android" route: allow people to log in to
their account and turn the knobs on the recommendation algorithms, or turn
them off entirely.

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grawprog
Hmmm I wondered why netflix seemed to use actors that weren't actually very
prominent in the show or movie being watched for their title cards. Makes
sense now i suppose.

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newen
Mine shows Kristen Bell in a river in her bathing suit. I'm a guy and have
action movies and comedies mostly on the netflix home page. So..yeah.

