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
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
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
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
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.
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
Automated Censorship
What to Do If You Think You’ve Been Shadowbanned on Instagram
How to appeal, check violations, and more
Automated Censorship
Demoted, Deleted, and Denied: There’s More Than Just Shadowbanning on Instagram
An investigation by The Markup found that the platform demoted images of the Israel–Hamas war, deleted captions without warning, and denied users the option to appeal
Show Your WorkAutomated Censorship
How We Investigated Shadowbanning on Instagram
We found that Instagram heavily demoted nongraphic images of war, deleted captions and hid comments without notification, suppressed hashtags, and limited users’ ability to appeal moderation decisions
Gentle January
Fake Your Answers to Security Questions
Why share any personal information if you don’t have to?
Gentle January
Unlock Your Phone Without Using Your Face or Fingerprint
Authenticating with a passcode or pattern protects your data legally as well as physically
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