Privacy
Big Tech Is Pushing States to Pass Privacy Laws, and Yes, You Should Be Suspicious
The Markup found industry fingerprints on at least five bills around the country—weak laws, experts say, that are designed to preempt strongerprotections
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How Facebook’s Ad System Lets Companies Talk Out of Both Sides of Their Mouths
Exxon, Comcast, and other companies target people of different political leanings with different ads
Google the Giant
Google Blocks Advertisers from Targeting Black Lives Matter YouTube Videos
“Black power” and “Black Lives Matter” can't be used to find videos for ads, but “White power” and “White lives matter” were just fine
Citizen Browser
Split Screen: How Different Are Americans’ Facebook Feeds?
Snapshots from the Facebook feeds of our Citizen Browser panelists illuminate how Facebook’s recommendation algorithm siloes information on the platform.
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Show Your WorkGoogle the Giant
How We Discovered Google’s Social Justice Blocklist for YouTube Ad Placements
Despite committing to dismantling systemic racism, YouTube blocks advertisers from using many racial justice and cultural identity terms to target videos for ads
Google the Giant
Google Has a Secret Blocklist that Hides YouTube Hate Videos from Advertisers—But It’s Full of Holes
Many well-known White supremacist and White nationalist terms and slogans were not blocked
Show Your WorkGoogle the Giant
How We Discovered Google’s Hate Blocklist for Ad Placements on YouTube
We got under the hood of Google Ads and found poorly executed limitations meant to hide hate YouTube videos and channels fromadvertisers
Privacy
The Little-Known Data Broker Industry Is Spending Big Bucks LobbyingCongress
Data brokers’ millions of dollars in lobbying spending in 2020 rivaled that of some Big Tech firms
News
Texas A&M Drops “Race” from Student Risk Algorithm Following MarkupInvestigation
Our investigation found major universities were using race as a predictor of student success and, in the process, steering Black kids away from the sciences