Tomas Apodaca

Journalism Engineer • he/him

Tomas Apodaca is a journalism engineer. He supports The Markup’s investigative journalism by exploring data, reverse-engineering algorithms, and creating custom tools.

Before joining The Markup, Tomas worked at Nava PBC and Code for America, building software that helped people access and navigate government services. Before that, he helped build digital maps in Mongolia, collected data for an elections API in Indonesia, and worked against HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Signal: apodaca.01

tomas@themarkup.org

Photo illustration of a person surrounded by graphic elements that include the U.S. Supreme Courthouse, a hand with a gavel, a dilated eye, a search bar, a bottle with pills floating around, a pregnancy test and a diagram of a uterus; a dotted white line with two location pins runs across the composition

The BreakdownPrivacy

How Do I Protect My Privacy If I’m Seeking an Abortion?

A guide to keeping your plans private through every step of an abortion in any state, including Florida and South Dakota

November 14, 2024 08:00 ET

Photo illustration of a raised fist holding up crumpled up one-hundred dollar bills, a rifle and bullets

How Meta Brings in Millions Off Political Violence

CalMatters and The Markup used Facebook’s AI model to count the millions of dollars it makes after violent news events

October 4, 2024 08:00 ET

Photo collage of a series of duotone neon-green and blue panels that feature images of a farming tractor, a woman wearing a headset with her hands in her face, an image of a ChatGPT answer in Spanish, hands cupped together dripping water, a parrot and an overhead shot of two workers standing at an energy grid

Hello World

How AI Detection Software Turns Professors into Cops, Tech as Systems of World-Making, and More

A conversation with agroecologist Maywa Montenegro

September 21, 2024 08:00 ET

Illustration of an iceberg with a small figure standing at the top, gazing downward; the top half is in front of a ChatGPT input form; the bottom half is a collage featuring imagery of power plants, copyright symbols, a surveillance map, people crying, and downward arrows

Hello World

How I’m Trying to Use Generative AI as a Journalism Engineer — Ethically

Is it possible?

September 7, 2024 08:00 ET

Photo illustration of a masked person holding a phone with their raised arm; the background shows a crowd of masked protesters holding signs

The Breakdown

How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest? (Updated 2024)

Simple steps to take before hitting the streets

May 4, 2024 08:00 ET

Illustration of cascading website browsers for sites like Wikipedia, Google, Nasa, It Gets Better and The Trevor Project; the browser windows have an inverted halftone filter that obscures the site's content

Digital Book Banning

Schools Were Just Supposed To Block Porn. Instead They Sabotaged Homework and Censored Suicide Prevention Sites

The Trevor Project? Blocked. Planned Parenthood? Blocked. NASA? BLOCKED

April 13, 2024 06:00 ET

Photo of Eric Adams speaking at a podium

News

NYC’s AI Chatbot Tells Businesses to Break the Law

The Microsoft-powered bot says bosses can take workers’ tips and that landlords can discriminate based on source of income

March 29, 2024 06:00 ET

Automated Censorship

Instagram Creators: Check If Your Posts Are “Political”

The platform will not “proactively recommend content about politics.” See if what you’ve posted counts

March 25, 2024 17:16 ET

رسم يُظهِر الملامح الجانبية لأربعة أشخاص: شخص ذو لحية ويرتدي نظارة، شخص ذو شعر مجعد، شخص يرتدي الحجاب، وشخص ذو شعر بني قصير. رسم للشخص الذي يرتدي الحجاب مرسوم بخطوط بيضاء منقطة وشفافة على عكس الأشخاص الثلاثة الآخرين.

Automated Censorship

حجب، حذف، ورفض: هناك أكثر من مجرد ”حظر الظل“ على الإنستغرام

وجد تحقيق أجرته ”ذا مارك آب“ أن منصة الإنستغرام حجبت صور متعلقة بالحرب على غزة، وحذفت التسميات التوضيحية دون سابق إنذار، وحرمت المستخدمين من خيار الاستئناف.

March 21, 2024 08:00 ET

The BreakdownAutomated Censorship

How Automated Content Moderation Works (Even When It Doesn’t)

Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms moderate billions of posts—here are some of their common techniques

March 1, 2024 08:00 ET

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