discrimination
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Airbnb now requires that hosts accept anti-discrimination rules
Remember how Airbnb said it would ask you to agree to a non-discrimination policy if you wanted to host guests? That's now in effect. As of November 1st, hosts must abide by rules forbidding them from discriminating against guests. In the US, they're explicitly barred from discrimination based on factors such as race, nationality, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation. Hosts can label shared living spaces as open solely to same-gender guests (to discourage creeps) and warn disabled guests about accessibility problems, but those are the only major exceptions.
Uber and Lyft aren't immune to racial discrimination by drivers
For a while, ridesharing has been seen as a possible solution to the racial discrimination you sometimes see with taxis. If drivers can't always see or hear you first, they're less likely to reject your request, right? Unfortunately, the industry isn't entirely color-blind. A newly published study reveals that there's still some bias in the ridesharing world. Uber drivers in Boston were over twice as likely to cancel rides on people with black-sounding names, for example, while black men waiting for rides in Seattle faced tangibly longer wait times for both Lyft and Uber.
Airbnb introduces new rules meant to fight discrimination
Airbnb has gone forward with several rules meant to combat the discrimination perceived in its rental policy as of today.
ACLU sues US over law limiting data discrimination studies
It's no secret that algorithms can be biased against certain demographics, but the American Civil Liberties Union wants more proof -- and it's willing to go to court to get it. The organization has sued the US in the belief that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act prevents studies on algorithm-powered discrimination, allegedly violating free speech rights. As the Act makes it a crime to violate a website's terms of service, the ACLU claims, it's frequently impossible to comb through publicly available site data that would reveal racism, sexism or other biases in the code. That, in turn, hampers researchers and journalists (the ACLU is representing The Intercept's publisher in this case) who want to expose illegal behavior.
Big data shows racial bias in police behavior
Stanford University just delivered further proof that massive, readily available data sets can solve tricky law enforcement problems. School researchers combing through a mix of 28,119 Oakland Police Department stop reports, officer body camera footage and community surveys have learned that there are "significant" racial biases at play. OPD officers are not only more likely to stop a black person, but far more likely to conduct searches of black people, even though they weren't any more likely to find something incriminating. Officers more frequently handcuffed black people without arresting them, too. And the pattern is the same regardless of the crime rate in a given region.
Online map shows North Carolina's transgender-friendly bathrooms
Oppressed groups have a knack for writing guides to avoid discrimination, and that's truer than ever in the internet era. MIT web designer Emily Rae Waggoner has created a Google map that helps you find transgender-friendly bathrooms in North Carolina, where a recently enacted law (commonly known under its bill name, HB2) makes it illegal to use facilities that aren't intended for the sex you were assigned at birth. Waggoner is taking submissions from across the state, but she's not just posting them without question -- she's using evidence from social networking to help prove that a given establishment really is welcoming. A post resisting HB2 can work, for example.
Apple's Tim Cook calls state discrimination laws 'dangerous'
A number of tech executives have decried state laws that promote discrimination against the LGBT community by allowing companies to refuse service on religious grounds, but Apple CEO Tim Cook is taking his opposition to the next level. The executive has written an editorial for the Washington Post that says it's "dangerous" to enact these laws, which include Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Arkansas' tentative HB1228. To him, these measures not only "rationalize injustice" against fellow human beings (including himself), but are "bad for business" -- they could stifle employment and corporate growth.
Tinder co-founder hits company with sexual harassment lawsuit
The corporate culture at Tinder HQ is about to get a public airing, now that its female co-founder and former VP of marketing has raised a lawsuit over allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Whitney Wolfe (top right) claims that she was sent inappropriate messages by one of Tinder's male co-founders, Justin Mateen (top left). These messages have been submitted as evidence, as you can probably tell from the spooked tone of the company's official response: "...it has become clear that Mr. Mateen sent private messages to Ms. Wolfe containing inappropriate content. We unequivocally condemn these messages, but believe that Ms. Wolfe's allegations with respect to Tinder and its management are unfounded."
Former Apple Store employee sues for discrimination, claims bizarre ordeal
The Apple Store in the SoHo section of New York City has reportedly been sued for discrimination by a former employee, who claims that she was unlawfully fired after taking a medical leave. Nicole Sullivan started working for Apple in 2008, and then took a leave in 2009 because of a nervous disorder. Despite being told that Apple wouldn't learn of her diagnosis, she claims that when she returned to the store, her coworkers clearly knew what had happened. What happened next sounds even more bizarre -- she was given a desk in the store's basement, and when she tried to apply for positions on the store floor, was told that "there were questions about her mental stability." She's now suing the company for back pay, benefits and $300,000 in damages for the alleged discrimination. Interesting story if true. I haven't worked at an Apple Store, but I have worked in retail, and I saw enough bizarre interactions between employees and managers that I can believe something like this may have happened. Then again, I am not a lawyer, so I won't make any predictions on how this will all turn out in court. Of course, this is likely all the result of some specific manager's decision, not actual Apple policy. Hopefully the matter will be settled justly and as quickly as possible.
Google and Verizon publish joint policy proposal for 'an open internet'
UPDATE: We've done a full breakdown of the proposal right here -- go check it out! Back in October of last year, Google and Verizon came together in order to provide an intense amount of corporate support for the FCC's then-fledgling net neutrality push. Today, said push has turned into quite the monster, with a recent court ruling asserting that the FCC doesn't actually have the authority to impose net neutrality. Since then, a cadre of telecommunications firms have banded together in one form or another to attempt a compromise (and slyly get what each of them really want), and today the Big G and Big Red have taken the stage together in order to publicize a well-thought out policy proposal for "an open internet." Both firms seem to agree that web users "should choose what content, applications, or devices they use," and they both want "enforceable prohibition against discriminatory practices" -- and yeah, that definitely includes prioritization and blocking of internet traffic, including paid prioritization. In an odd twist, what seems to be happening here is that both Google and Verizon are actually in favor of more government oversight on the internet, but they want that oversight to be beneficial to consumers. In other words, more regulations from the feds to enforce fewer regulations imposed on you from your ISP. Get all that? Where things really get interesting is when they touch on the wireless angle; essentially, they're admitting that the very proposals they are putting forth for wireline shouldn't apply to wireless just yet (aside from the whole "transparency" thing). It seems that the prevailing logic is that there's simply not enough spectrum for this idyllic "play fair" scenario to truly work, so fewer restrictions would be necessary for the wireless internet space to blossom as the wireless side already has. Moreover, we get the impression that these guys feel the wireless space as a whole is simply too competitive right now to withstand any red tape. The proposal also mentions that, if passed into law, the FCC would have the ability to fine "bad actors" (read: misbehaving ISPs) up to $2 million for breaking any of these "open internet" stipulations, and naturally, both outfits are highly in favor of the National Broadband Plan taking hold, moving forward and getting broadband to places that are currently using a strange mixture of used canisters and rope to check their inbox.
The Daily Grind: Have you been discriminated against in game?
One of the uglier aspects of gamer culture is the tendency to breed, shall we say, a lack of tolerance and respect for those who are "not us." The general anonymity of the online world can bring the worst out in some, with little to check these attitudes unless contrary peer pressure is summoned. So at the risk of reopening old wounds, today we want to ask if you have ever been discriminated against in an MMO based on who you were, what you believed or what you represented. Maybe you felt the sting of ageism as you were shut out of a guild due to being "too young" for the group. Maybe your feminine voice on Vent changed how players treated you -- and not in a good way. Maybe your ethnicity, sexuality, faith, sense of humor, fashion style or cat/dog preference netted you a cold shoulder from the community. Or maybe -- and this is far-fetched -- you've been discriminated against solely because of your lackluster gear or less-than-optimal character build. Hey, it happens (or so the legend goes). Have you been discriminated against in game? Pipe up, and let's sew those old wounds shut once and for all!
NY Attorney General investigating claims of profiling in iPad sales
For Apple to have said "no cash for iPads" is one thing -- but interviewing would-be NYC iPad buyers of Asian descent before they make their purchases? Another thing entirely. Ben Smith at Politico reports that Apple is offering "complete" cooperation in an investigation by the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State attorney general's office, answering complaints from Queens residents that they were being treated differently than Caucasian customers when trying to purchase iPads at the Soho & 14th St. stores. Back in May, when the shoppers complained to their state Assembly representative, the iPad was still a US-only offering, and Apple had a keen interest in keeping iPads off the gray market. A source told Politico that there was a brief period where a questionnaire was used to try to discover when multiple-iPad purchases might be headed for overseas resale; the questionnaire was quickly discontinued. Richard Bamberger, communications director for NY's attorney general (and gubernatorial candidate) Andrew Cuomo, told Politico in an email that Apple has been "very cooperative" during the investigation. "The matter is still ongoing but we have every expectation that it will be resolved expeditiously and fairly," Bamberger said.
FCC to propose new net neutrality rules disallowing data discrimination
Based on what we're hearing, a slate of soon-to-be-proposed FCC rules may stop the likes of Comcast from discriminating against P2P applications on their networks, and AT&T sure will have a tougher time justifying why it won't let the iPhone's version of SlingPlayer run on 3G while giving WinMo and BlackBerry users all the bandwidth they can handle. Julius Genachowski, the new chairman of the entity, is slated to discuss the new rules on Monday, though he isn't expected to dig too deep into the minutiae. Essentially, the guidelines will "prevent wireless companies from blocking internet applications and prevent them from discriminating (or acting as gatekeepers) [against] web content and services." We know what you're thinking: "Huzzah!" And in general, that's probably the right reaction to have as a consumer, but one has to wonder how network quality for all will be affected if everyone is cut loose to, well, cut loose. Oh, and if this forces telecoms to deploy more cell sites to handle the influx in traffic, you can rest assured that the bill will be passed on to you. Ain't nuthin' free, kids.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Anti-Aliased: Virtual worlds as the great equalizer pt. 2
Social situations shattered How many times do we have a young player in our guild who act more like a 30-year-old than the 30-year-olds do? How often do we cross cultural boundaries and forget that we're speaking with someone who might be across the world, in a completely different time zone? To us, they're simply standing in the same room as us, and that puts them in the same place we are.I know that I don't consciously think about where someone lives or who they really are when I meet them in Second Life or Metaplace. I'm too busy chatting with them about shared interests, because obviously if we're meeting one another while standing inside of a fantasy roleplaying simulation, then we both enjoy fantasy roleplaying.This is doubly true when I'm playing something like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XI. Not only do we now have something in common, but we can be united with our goals as well. You're here to run Nexus? So am I! Let's work together to get through this dungeon. I don't question where you come from, who you are, or how old you are. I may question you if you're not pulling your weight or bringing down the party, but even then I'm going to help you so we can get through the task together. "In a weird sort of way, virtual worlds humanize us more than the real world is able to. In a weird sort of way, virtual worlds humanize us more than the real world is able to. While the condition of anonymity can lead to some really destructive individuals, it can also lead to being able to connect to one another without the hangups of social barriers that exist in real life. We can meet individuals who are very different from ourselves, find common ground quickly, and then learn from one another, rather than avoiding those who are different because it scares us.Beyond that, the experiences we gain from being in virtual worlds do not exist in a vacuum. We take what we learn and we apply it to what we do in everyday life. With enough time, I have no doubt that this too will help melt some of the social stigmas that we carry in real life, simply because we can come in contact with others in a more controlled online environment.If you want evidence, look at the decreasing age barrier. We let younger kids and teenagers into positions of power and responsibility in our guilds and online activities, and that in turn has slowly lead to more adults listening to kids when they have something to say. We use to completely bar kids from offering advice to us "more knowledgeable, older adults" but it's been slowly changing. While it may not be the only factor that has lead to this, it certainly is one of them.So I think it's time to give credit where credit is due. Virtual worlds, online games, and the Internet are bringing us together, and many of us are slowly finding out that we're really not so different from one another after all. We're learning about culture, gender, age, and sexuality, and it's certainly about damn time. Colin Seraphina Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased isn't that different from anyone else and is darn proud of it. When she's not writing here for Massively, she's rambling on her personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message her, send her an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow her on Twitter through Massively, or through her personal feed, @sera_brennan.
LGJ: Wrath of the Discrimination King
Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq ("LGJ"), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games: GamePolitics recent posted a report that some employers may be 'discriminating' against World of Warcraft players. In fact, there have been longstanding reports of gamers, generally, not being the most favored employee in some workplaces. Of course, as soon as anyone reads the word 'discrimination' they immediately think 'lawsuit.' Whether that's an unfortunate byproduct of the direction of the American legal system or something else entirely is a discussion for another day. Today, rather, I want to take a look at the question of whether gamer discrimination could give rise to an employment discrimination lawsuit.
Picking apart the MetaPlace Bill of Rights
MetaPlace is not an MMOG. It's a platform for creating virtual spaces that can be used for anything the creators can imagine. As such, the traditional MMO EULA is completely inadequate. Raph Koster -- the head honcho on the MetaPlace project -- made that clear in a panel at AGDC08. So, the folks working on MetaPlace had to come up with a whole new set of rules -- rules that allow users ownership of their virtual property, for example. There's a veritable landmine of problems awaiting this endeavor, of course. That's not to say it's impossible. It's just going to be extremely challenging.Koster published a first draft of the Terms of Service for MetaPlace on his blog the other day. It's based based on the Declaration of the Rights of Avatars that he conceived back in 2000. Readers of the MetaPlace ToS are likely to come away with two impressions. The first: that it's really cool and admirable and that in a general sense, Koster and friends are on the right track. Two is that the MetaPlace team seems to be underestimating just how epic a quest it's committed itself to.
Habbo aims to erase hate in online communities
Let's face it, being a teen is not easy. With the ever-growing mountain of potential pitfalls teens may face, the last thing they want to deal with is the hatred, discrimination and bigotry that seems to be plaguing our online environments. To help combat this problem, Habbo has joined forces with the Matthew Shepard Foundation in a project they call "Erase Hate".Beginning July 7th, the Matthew Shepard Foundation staff will make appearances twice a week in Habbo's InfoBus to discuss those issues concerning young people in a safe environment. Main topics will include bullying, discrimination and any other forms of hate experienced on and offline. Not only will these teens be taught how to deal with these concerns, but they will learn how to encourage respect among peers. "It is a mission of the Foundation to support young people and provide them with the resources to lead healthy, productive, hate free lives," said Judy Shepard, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. "Our partnership with Habbo will allow us to have ongoing conversations with young people about what they can do in the fight to replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance."
Officers' Quarters: When to give up
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.If you were reading WoW Insider over the weekend, you might have noticed a couple of rather depressing posts. Adam talked about when you should make the personal decision to stop raiding. Then Jennie talked about the reasons why raiding guilds break up. I might as well continue the trend, but at least I have the excuse of a reader's e-mail. Last week I addressed the problems that small guilds will face in the coming months. This week, by request, I'm going to look at larger, hardcore guilds. And I'll also examine a nasty stereotype in the community that continues to proliferate.I am in this guild for the past 2 years of my WOW experience. This is my first guild, and my only guild so far. The atmosphere was friendly when I first joined it to join my real life schoolmates, hoping to down boss and experience content together. But a couple of drama and event took place, and my friends all quit the game which they felt was taking too much of their time. The original management when I joined all left the game due to other real life commitments and burnouts from over-WOW-ed. So with a twist of fate I took over the role of Guildmaster. The other veterans in the guild has other reasons that forbid them from taking the helm. And so I begun my quest to reform the dying guild in the dying server. We are a guild with predominantly Asian players, but we welcome western players too. But apparently playing in a US server meant you always have to being abused at for being Asian. Some people just cannot differentiate Chinese Farmer and general normal Asian players. And so I have been working for the past 6 months trying to recruit new blood into the guild and keeping the raiders around. We finally managed to down Rage Winterchill only in the past 2 weeks, after the top end guild in our server's endless poaching of our raiders to warm their bench . . . And a few other core raiders announcing their quitting of the game soon. And now I feel I don't enjoy WOW the same anymore. It's no longer the same for me.
BBC's Watchdog keeping an eye on 2006
The BBC's Watchdog consumer report program has discovered a shocking issue with Brain Training: apparently there are some problems with the voice recognition! The game doesn't always understand you when you say "blue" or "yellow!" Have you guys heard about this?What you may not have heard about is that this is now being interpreted as discrimination against people with certain regional dialects. "I'm going, 'yeller' and everyone's saying to me you need to be a bit posher. You need to say, 'yellow' and as soon as I did, it picked it up," reported Michelle Livesey. Host Nicky Campbell then suggested that the game was discriminatory against people with Northern and Scottish accents. Nintendo responded to the report with a statement explaining that they recognize the issue, and that voice recognition in the Stroop test is only a small, optional part of the game.Yet again we find ourselves taken aback by the mainstream media's treatment of gaming. Had Livesey done even the most casual of Googling, she would have learned that the Brain Training voice issue is the "Take my wife, please" of DS game jokes (meaning it's ancient). It's not enough that they presented a well-known problem with a two-year-old game as news, but they seem to have attempted to ignite some sort of controversy over it, without actually doing any research or knowing what they were talking about. People across the United States have the same problem, but to our knowledge nobody accused Nintendo of discriminating against most Americans. We're just going to choose to believe, without having heard the program, that Campbell's comment was facetious in nature. For our sanity.[Via CVG]
iTunes HD rentals: price discrimination against men
So what is it with the "guy tax" that Apple has added to its Apple TV rentals? You know what I mean. Rentals are $3.99 for women, $4.99 for men. See? Look at the picture. Because few women (other than our Christina) are going to look at that pricing structure and say "Oh wow, honey. Let's pay a dollar more so that we can enjoy the romance and relationships with better pixel counts."No, we women are going to say (except for Christina and a few others of her technical prowess) "What a rip!" and buy the SD version while our better halves explain in excruciating detail exactly why they bought that 1080p TV equipment in the first place, which we will ignore and still rent the cheaper version. And why? Because relationships are rarely improved by higher definition. In fact, it's the soft fuzziness (and lower cost) that keeps relationships mysterious and desirable. Especially in the morning before teeth are brushed.
