Consent Theater: Users Agree to Terms They Don’t Understand

Platform terms of service create appearance of consent without meaningful user understanding or choice. Research revealing algorithmic manipulation that most users never consciously notice highlights how inadequate current consent mechanisms are for complex algorithmic systems affecting fundamental political attitudes.
Over 1,000 users during the 2024 presidential election received manipulated feeds without realizing anything had changed. Legally, they had consented to platform terms allowing algorithmic curation. Practically, they had no understanding that their political attitudes might be systematically manipulated through invisible content selection.
This disconnect between legal consent and meaningful understanding pervades digital platforms. Terms of service run to thousands of words of technical legal language that virtually no one reads or comprehends. Users click “agree” because refusing means losing access to services that have become essential for modern social and professional life.
Even when users theoretically consent to algorithmic curation, they typically lack information necessary for meaningful consent. They don’t know what objectives algorithms optimize for, how personalization works, what effects systems produce, or what alternatives might exist. This information asymmetry means that formal consent doesn’t reflect genuine understanding or voluntary choice.
Meaningful consent for algorithmic systems would require radical transparency. Users would need to understand in clear language what algorithms do, what objectives they pursue, and what effects they produce. They would need genuine alternatives allowing choice between different algorithmic approaches. And they would need ongoing notification when algorithms significantly affect their experiences, not just one-time consent to general terms. Whether platforms will voluntarily provide such meaningful consent or whether regulatory requirements will be necessary remains uncertain.