Twitter is launching an investigation into its photo cropping algorithm, a trending topic that has fueled discussion about diversity issues in the tech sector.

The social media giant made headlines after users discovered a clear racial bias in its image viewing algorithm. The discovery came after Twitter user Colin Madland took to the platform to call out Zoom's failure to recognize his Black colleagues using its green screen technology, only to discover in a major display of irony that Twitter's image cropping algorithm behaved in a similar manner, deprioritizing Black faces.

Other users jumped on the trend, sparking a series of viral tweets showing how the algorithm consistently prioritized white and lighter-skinned faces, ranging from people to cartoon characters and even dogs. The failure is indicative of a larger cultural movement in the tech industry that has consistently failed to account for minority groups, which has spilled over into the tech side.

“It makes minorities feel terrible, like they don’t matter, and it can be used for other things that can cause even more harm down the road,” Erik Learned-Miller, a computer science professor at the University of Massachusetts, said in a telephone interview. “Once you decide what a piece of software can be used for and what harm it can cause, then we start talking about ways to minimize the chance of that happening.”