SmartNews launched in English in the U.S. in 2014, and the app is now available in more than 150 countries. The company styles itself as diverging from the received wisdom in American media: that polarization sells. SmartNews has developed a news-recommendation algorithm that promises to serve its readers a personalized, but politically balanced range of stories.
Alongside is a feature called “News From All Sides,” built specifically for the U.S. market. It marks the partisan spectrum of news stories clearly, and allows readers to toggle between them. Rather than pushing consumers into algorithmically driven filter bubbles, SmartNews says, their system gives readers a range of views.
October 2021, Rest of World
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