# kaal:claim:3782198-006

**Claim.** Centralized platforms are locked into an arms race in which developers infer the rules of the ranking algorithm and exploit them, forcing the owner to keep the algorithm opaque and under constant revision.

**Type.** mechanism  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- applies to centrally owned information filtering algorithms such as search ranking

**Source quote.**

> The Google search engine algorithm is constantly be- ing improved, because website developers infer the rules of the algorithm and exploit its properties to raise their site

**From.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, *Contemporary Decentralization* (2021), From Social Media to Decentralized Coordination, page 6

**Cite as.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Contemporary Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782198

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `e7e1378e3eed06cace6534e7792a7307d607d18bc6beb4ac45896476280728e4` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Calcaterra%20and%20Kaal%20-%202021%20-%20Contemporary%20Decentralization.pdf

**Failure mode.** algorithm-exploitation-arms-race  (family: reputation-system-gaming)

**Topics.** regulatory-failure, disclosure

**Keywords.** search-algorithms, gaming, opacity, arms-race, pagerank

**Related claims.**

- extended_by: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782214-039
- extended_by: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782203-005

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of the claim. Its sha256 is the content hash used for attestation.