Thread by @themarkup

Thread⬇️
We pursue our stories through what we’re calling The Markup Method, an approach rooted in the scientific method. Here’s how this applies to our reporting of #WheresMyEmail📭: themarkup.org/google-the-gia…

It started with a tip that some political organizations had seen a sudden drop in the percentage of Gmail users opening email around April 2018.

Email is critical to political organizing and fund-raising, and Gmail’s dominance in the email market means that any change in senders’ reach is a big deal. The groups wanted to know: Did Gmail reduce the visibility of their emails? And if so, why?

Step 1: Build. We created a Gmail account and signed up for more than 200 email lists so we could test how Gmail’s algorithm filters political email into different sections of the inbox—some less visible than others.

Step 2: Bulletproof. After we analyzed the data, we sent a copy of our experimental inbox and a summary of the methodology and findings to Google. The company didn’t raise any issues with our approach.

Step 3: Show your work. You can read the methodology and findings in our white paper: themarkup.org/google-the-gia…

Or download the code from Github: github.com/the-markup/inv…

Or just read the story we copublished with @guardian: themarkup.org/google-the-gia…
/end