The Legal Regulation Of Algorithmic Discrimination

The advent of the Internet era and the development of intelligent information technology have not only facilitated people’s lives and brought the dividends of Internet e-commerce platforms,but also given rise to a series of contradictory problems between technological misconduct and citizens’ rights and interests,and the problem of algorithms contained in artificial intelligence technology has gradually become a hot spot and a difficult issue in the theoretical and practical sessions in the field of law.Among them,the problem of algorithmic discrimination has frequently appeared in the public view,and the harm it brings has time and again penetrated the bottom line of the concept of social fairness and justice,and the regulation of this problem is particularly important in the current theoretical research.When citizens encounter algorithmic discrimination,judicial remedy is often the common choice of remedy.Therefore,the legal regulation of algorithmic discrimination has also become the core of the solution to this problem.Algorithmic discrimination not only expands traditional discrimination,but also constitutes a transgression of the concept of justice and disregard for the concept of equality.In practice,e-commerce operators use algorithmic mechanisms to collect,analyze and process consumer information to form an algorithmic portrait of each consumer,and implement different levels of algorithmic discrimination against consumers in the data collection,information delivery and differential pricing stages.Algorithmic discrimination not only infringes on consumers’ personal information security,but also undermines consumers’ right to fair trade and right to information,and makes consumers’ residual benefits,which should belong to consumers,completely taken away by merchants.In the current judicial practice of regulating algorithmic discrimination against consumers,consumers are faced with the difficult dilemma of defending their rights,the main problems include: first,the ambiguity and lag of the application of the law;second,the lack of market supervision;and third,the difficulty of proof for consumers.As pioneers of artificial intelligence technology,Europe and the United States have also gradually recognized the problem of discrimination under the algorithm operation mechanism.In this regard,the EU regulation of algorithmic discrimination focuses on "data empowerment",while "algorithmic accountability" is the central approach to regulate algorithmic discrimination in the U.S.Both models can provide relevant insights for China on the road of using laws to regulate algorithmic discrimination.Therefore,based on the study of European and American regulatory approaches,this paper proposes the following countermeasures to solve the problem of algorithmic discrimination that damages consumers’ legitimate rights and interests,taking into account China’s actual situation and relevant laws and regulations: first,to apply the E-Commerce Law to regulate algorithmic discrimination;second,to improve the regulatory mechanism of platform self-censorship and law enforcement inspection;third,to establish a comprehensive algorithmic liability system and rules of proof.