Are Search Engines Fair? Auditing Search Engines for Differential Satisfaction

Many online services, such as search engines, social media platforms, and digital marketplaces, are advertised as being available to any user, regardless of their age, gender, or other demographic factors. However, there are growing concerns that these services may systematically underserve some groups of users. From a social perspective, this is troubling. Search engines are a modern analog of libraries and should therefore provide equal access to information, irrespective of users' demographic factors. From a public-relations perspective, service providers and the decisions made by their services are under increasing scrutiny by journalists and civil-rights enforcement for seemingly unfair behavior.