German chancellor Angela Merkel has called on Google and Facebook to publicise the way they select information that people see online. Describing the platforms as "the eye of the needle" through which information passes, Merkel warned that a lack of transparency around the algorithms they use to choose content could stifle open debate. "These algorithms, when they are not transparent, can lead to a distortion of our perception, they narrow our breadth of information," she warned during a keynote speech at the Media Days in Munich. In response to her comments, Facebook and Google told German paper Der Spiegel that they already provided a large amount of information on their operations to the public.
