Racism
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Reddit bans 'alt-right' community over harassment
Reddit isn't done cracking down on harmful communities. The social site has banned its r/altright subreddit for violating policies against "the proliferation of personal and confidential information." Members were doxxing people to harass or threaten them, in other words. Reddit didn't tell us exactly what prompted the move, but it clarifies that there were "repeated violations" of its doxxing policy. Moderators either couldn't or wouldn't police users' behavior, then. You can read the full statement below.
Oracle faces Labor Department lawsuit over job discrimination
Google isn't the only Silicon Valley staple facing a lawsuit over the fairness of its hiring practices. The US Department of Labor has sued Oracle for allegedly conducting discriminatory employment practices. The enterprise tech giant is accused of paying white male workers more than minorities and women in similar positions, and of favoring Asian people for "technical roles." The lawsuit isn't coming out of the blue, though -- it's really the culmination of a battle that started when an investigation began in 2014.
The year's biggest loser was the American public
Even if we judge 2016 purely on the musical legends it stole from us, it would be an awful one. The truth is, this year has been rough by any standard. Our social networks, ostensibly designed to connect us, led us to turn on one another. Incidents of harassment and abuse came to define Twitter. Our already bitter and destructive discourse dissolved even further in the midst of a divisive election season. Meanwhile Facebook was flooded with an alarming number of fake news stories. And if that wasn't enough, we were constantly reminded that none of us are safe from the seemingly endless barrage of hackers. Yep, this year the American public lost, big league.
How not to promote a video game sale
You don't need a degree in marketing to know promotional material that could offend and alienate potential customers is obviously a bad call. But it's a fact Indie Gala -- an online store selling Steam keys for indie titles -- seems woefully unaware of. In an effort to promote its winter sale, specifically a discount on tactical first-person shooter Insurgency, the store bundled an insensitive and years-old Steam recommendation with an equally crass meme to create the advert you see above. The tweet has since disappeared, likely due to the devs of Insurgency publicly deploring the promotion, not to mention a chorus of other Twitter users clearly offended by it. The ad remains live on Indie Gala's Facebook page, however.
Twitter reinstates racist leader's account
Twitter was supposed to have cracked down on "alt-right" racism back in mid-November, but it appears to be having second thoughts. The social network has reinstated the account of Richard B. Spencer, the white nationalist leader whose groups were an important part of the crackdown. He'd originally been banned based on Twitter rules barring "violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct and multiple account abuse," although there weren't clear examples of violations at the time.
'Alt-right' site plans a 'fake black person' Twitter campaign
The Daily Stormer, an alt-right website that regularly features racist, sexist and anti-semitic content, claims it has nearly 1,000 "fake black person" Twitter accounts that it plans to use in a "big," upcoming harassment campaign. This is a response to Twitter's recent ban of multiple accounts that distributed white supremacist content and ideas -- many of these banned users are prominent names in racist circles online. The bans are a result of Twitter's attempt to clean up its image with a new set of rules for reporting abuse. The company rolled out these safeguards on Tuesday.
'White' Twitter bots can help curb racism
Twitter is trying to curb the virulent racism on its platform by banning bigots and expanding reporting features, but it's like whack-a-mole -- two pop up for every one banned. However, a new research paper shows that calling out users who post racist and sexist slurs can heavily curb trolling. There's a catch, however: it's much more effective if the "white knight" is, well, white
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.
Hashtags help survivors break their silence
Last Friday, the Washington Post revealed a video recorded in 2005 of Donald Trump and Access Hollywood co-host Billy Bush engaged in a lewd and crass discussion about women. Caught on a hot mic, Trump said that he can grab women "by the pussy," that he starts kissing them without waiting for consent and that he can get away with it because he's a "star." Trump has since come under fire for his remarks, not just because they are vulgar, but because what he is describing is sexual assault.
Snapchat's racist yellowface filter lands it in hot water
Snapchat's problems with racist image filters aren't over yet, it seems. The messaging service tells The Verge that it has pulled a filter that was supposed to be anime-inspired, but came across as turning people into racist Asian caricatures -- just look at the picture above if you need proof. Suffice it to say that the filter won't be coming back.
The historical research behind the biracial antihero in 'Mafia III'
The 1960s were a period of dramatic upheaval in the United States. By 1968, the Vietnam War was raging abroad while civil-rights activists at home were mourning the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in April. The Civil Rights Act, Fair Housing Act and Brown v. Board of Education -- landmark rulings in favor of racial equality in the United States -- were all in effect, though racism still reared its ugly head across the nation, particularly in the South. The FBI finally admitted in the 1950s that organized crime existed on a large scale, and by 1968, the sun was setting on the Italian mob's golden age.
The After Math: Sentimental Sunday
It was a top notch week in terms of longing for the simpler times of yesteryear. The action was capped off with a ringing endorsement from none other than Clint Eastwood himself. But while that angry old man busied himself with yelling at clouds, Sony put the Kibosh on its helpless superhero series. The US announced it will let a private company land on the moon. Archive.org posted a gaggle of old Nintendo Power issues. And Apple stayed insanely rich. Numbers, because how else are you going to know how long it's been since you could get away with being openly racist?
The 2016 RNC was celebratory and friendly, both online and off
Donald Trump has, whether knowingly or not, tapped into some deep-seated bigotry still lurking just beneath the surface of this country. I do not know if Trump agrees with the openly racist people he retweets or if he's merely aping the language and memes of the alt-right for political gain. As many have discovered, though, Trump's most vocal supporters on Twitter are often unabashedly anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and racist. The question for me as I prepared for the 2016 Republican National Convention was, would these newly invigorated hate groups suddenly feel as safe expressing themselves face-to-face as they do online? I'm happy to report the answer is no -- mostly, anyway. The 2016 RNC certainly wasn't without incident or ugliness, but by and large the crowds were peaceful and respectful, and the hate groups did not find the Republican Party waiting for them with open arms in Cleveland.
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.
Airbnb CEO addresses issues with racist hosts
Airbnb is hosting its annual OpenAir conference today, and CEO Brian Chesky kicked off the conference by addressing recent reports surrounding the phenomenon of racist hosts cancelling travelers' trips. "First, let me make it clear that we have zero tolerance for any amount of racism or discrimination on our platform," Chesky said."Over the next couple months, we're revisiting the design of our platform end to end and look at how we can revisit decisions we've made."
Google pulls Chrome extension used to target Jewish people
Following a detailed investigation by Mic, Google has pulled a Chrome extension that was used by racists to identify and track Jewish people online. The plugin, called "Coincidence Detector," added a series of triple parentheses around the surnames of Jewish writers and celebrities. For instance, visiting the page of Mic writer Cooper Fleishman, you'd see his surname presented as (((Fleishman))) -- turning the symbol into the digital equivalent of the gold star badge used to identify Jews in Nazi Germany. Until Google banned it for violating its policy on hate speech, the plugin had just under 2,500 users and had a list of 8,768 names that were considered worthy of tracking.
French anti-racism groups target Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
Twitter, YouTube and Facebook will face legal complaints from three anti-racism groups in France, according to Le Monde. The French Jewish student union (UEJF), SOS Racisme and SOS Homophobie claim that the social networks failed to take down illegal hate speech material as required by French law. After a week-long test by the groups, the companies deleted only a fraction of videos, tweets and comments with themes like racism, homophobia and holocaust denial, they say.
Intel execs received threats over the company's diversity push
Intel's bid to promote company diversity is running into opposition... and some of it is particularly vicious. CEO Brian Krzanich told guests at a technology conference that it has received some hostility, including a "bit of a backlash" from within the company. There have even been threats against executives -- yes, the company that's trying to fight harassment is enduring some harassment of its own. It's not certain how serious those threats are, but it's safe to say that these weren't polite complaints.
Microsoft grounds its AI chat bot after it learns racism
Microsoft's Tay AI is youthful beyond just its vaguely hip-sounding dialogue -- it's overly impressionable, too. The company has grounded its Twitter chat bot (that is, temporarily shutting it down) after people taught it to repeat conspiracy theories, racist views and sexist remarks. We won't echo them here, but they involved 9/11, GamerGate, Hitler, Jews, Trump and less-than-respectful portrayals of President Obama. Yeah, it was that bad. The account is visible as we write this, but the offending tweets are gone; Tay has gone to "sleep" for now.
