People who use social media are learning about how the companies that run these platforms make their decisions on who gets to see what through visual indicators in the interface (UI) of each social media site. These indicators are different for each platform and are not always located in an easy-to-find location on the site. Therefore, it is hard for someone to compare different social media platforms or determine whether transparency leads to greater accountability or only leads to increased understanding. A new classification system has been developed to help provide a standard way of categorizing the way, that an algorithm is presented through UI elements and whether the company has provided any type of explanation as to why they are featured. This new classification system includes the following three areas of development: design form, information content, and user agency. This new classification system can be applied to the six social media platforms currently available and serves as a reference database for identifying common archetypes of features in the each social media platform's UI. The new classification system will assist in determining whether or not the transparency of an algorithm functions the way that it was intended when it was developed and provide future design ideas that can help improve the inspectibility, actionability, and contestability of algorithms.

翻译：社交媒体用户正通过各平台界面中的视觉指示器，了解运营方如何决定内容的分发与可见性。这些指示器在不同平台间存在差异，且常位于不易察觉的界面位置。因此，用户难以跨平台比较不同社交媒体，亦无法确知透明度究竟能提升平台问责制，抑或仅增强用户理解。本研究提出一套新型分类体系，旨在为算法通过界面元素的呈现方式建立标准化分类框架，同时评估平台是否对特定内容推荐提供解释说明。该分类体系涵盖三个发展维度：设计形式、信息内容与用户能动性。本体系可应用于当前六大主流社交媒体平台，并构建了识别各平台界面特征共性的参考数据库。该分类体系将有助于评估算法透明度的实际效果是否符合设计初衷，同时为未来提升算法的可审查性、可操作性与可争议性提供设计思路。