Tweet

The Markup

3 Nov, 8 tweets, 7 min read

We published our 200th story today.

This is a huge milestone for our small nonprofit newsroom—mind if we indulge in a quick recap of our recent work? ⬇️

@darakerr

This story from @darakerr was one of @ToddFeathers’ favorite pieces of journalism this year.

“An example of investigating an industry that tries to turn people into data and turning it around by using data to show the tragedies that attitude can create.”
themarkup.org/working-for-an…

@LeonYin

@LeonYin appreciated @tenuous and @colinlecher’s reporting on NYC high school admissions.

“This story investigates a system that upholds segregation through arbitrary and inconsistent rules. I especially appreciated students’ perspectives.” themarkup.org/news/2021/05/2…

@tenuous

One of @tenuous’s favorites came from @jonkeegan and @alfredwkng.

“It’s a great example of The Markup building a dataset when there isn’t one. I really appreciate their no-nonsense approach.” themarkup.org/privacy/2021/0…

@darakerr

@darakerr wanted to highlight @corintxt’s work.

“This story really illustrates the backwards ways of Facebook—the company went after watchdogs monitoring its platform, which in turn made its site less accessible to visually impaired users.”
themarkup.org/citizen-browse…

@NabihaSyed

President @NabihaSyed was struck by @LeonYin and @ASankin’s investigation that found Google blocked advertisers from using many racial justice terms to find YouTube videos and channels to advertise on—and led @ColorOfChange to call for an audit.
themarkup.org/google-the-gia…

@JuliaAngwin

Editor-in-chief @JuliaAngwin admires how this investigation of racial bias in mortgage-approval algorithms from @eh_mah_nwel and @lkirchner highlights how our work extends beyond Silicon Valley into the tech that affects every aspect of our lives. themarkup.org/denied/2021/08…

It’s with reader support that we got to publish 200 stories. And it’s with reader support that we’ll be able to publish 200 more.

Wondering how you can help? Share our work, subscribe to our newsletters, or consider a monthly contribution: themarkup.org/give-today.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @themarkup

The Markup

@themarkup

4 Nov

@SZ

Our colleagues at Germany’s @SZ used Citizen Browser data to uncover the messaging that made its way into voters’ news feeds during the country’s recent election cycle. getrevue.co/profile/citize…

They found voters of the far-right AfD party were more likely to see posts attacking issues like climate change, migration, and COVID-19 from their party leaders.

Meanwhile, voters from other parties were generally served coverage on those topics from established media outlets.

@SZ

We’re thrilled that our tools are being used to reveal how polarization on Facebook is playing out beyond the United States.

If you want to dig deeper into the data and see some examples, check out @SZ’s report. projekte.sueddeutsche.de/artikel/politi…

Read 4 tweets

The Markup

@themarkup

3 Nov

@tenuous

Police can request data on every person’s device in a specific area through something called a “geofence warrant.”

In California, law enforcement agencies appear to be severely underreporting these warrants, @tenuous and @alfredwkng found. themarkup.org/privacy/2021/1…

@ACLU

Geofence warrants are a fairly new concept mostly involving data from Google.

Privacy advocates say they violate civil liberties. For example, the @ACLU found that law enforcement was using geofence data to track Black Lives Matter protesters in 2016. themarkup.org/ask-the-markup…

California is one of few states where law enforcement agencies must disclose geofence warrants to a state dataset.

We looked at that dataset—as well as a geofence transparency report from Google—and found the numbers didn’t add up.

Read 6 tweets

The Markup

@themarkup

14 Oct

@adrjeffries

NEW: Amazon placed items from its house brands and exclusives ahead of competitors with better customer ratings and more sales, @adrjeffries and @leonyin found after examining the results of nearly 3,500 popular product searches. themarkup.org/amazons-advant…

Take Amazon’s Happy Belly Cinnamon Crunch cereal, for example.

It had four stars and 1,010 reviews, but Amazon gave it the number one search result spot, ahead of Cap’n Crunch, which had five stars and 14,069 reviews.

We found that knowing only whether a product was an Amazon brand or exclusive could predict in seven out of 10 cases whether the company would rank the item first in search results.

You read that right. Seven out of 10.

Read 15 tweets

The Markup

@themarkup

27 Aug

In 2019, Crystal Marie and Eskias McDaniels were set to close on their dream home in Charlotte, N.C.

They were excellent applicants: good jobs, plenty of savings, and great credit.

Then, their mortgage application was denied. themarkup.org/denied/2021/08…

The reason? Crystal Marie was a contractor, not a full-time employee—even though her boss told the lender she wasn’t at risk of losing her job.

Her co-workers, also contractors, had mortgages. They are White. She is Black.

Crystal Marie’s lender, loanDepot, denied that race had anything to do with the decision.

Read 7 tweets

The Markup

@themarkup

25 Aug

@MalenaCarollo

We found racial disparities in home loan denial rates throughout the mortgage industry.

But among large lenders, those owned by our nation’s largest home builders had some of the widest gaps, report @MalenaCarollo and @eh_mah_nwel. Thread. 🧵themarkup.org/denied/2021/08…

Have you heard of D.R. Horton, Lennar Corporation, or PulteGroup Inc.? These are our nation’s largest home builders.

They have some things in common beyond new construction: owning mortgage companies that denied applicants of color at higher rates than their White counterparts.

Let’s start with the widest disparity: DHI Mortgage, which finances homes built by parent company D.R. Horton, the nation’s largest home builder.

It was 160% more likely to deny Black applicants and 100% more likely to deny Latinos than similar White applicants.

Read 7 tweets

The Markup

@themarkup

25 Aug

@eh_mah_nwel

#NEW: Lenders are more likely to deny home loans to people of color than White people with similar financial backgrounds.

Black people were 80% more likely to be denied, @eh_mah_nwel and @lkirchner reveal in their latest investigation.
themarkup.org/denied/2021/08…

Nationally, our analysis found, the mortgage industry was 40% to 80% more likely in 2019 to deny home loans to people of color than to White people with similar financial characteristics.