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The Very Hungry Algorithm: Bedtime with ChatGPT
Hello World is a weekly newsletter—delivered every Saturday morning—that goes deep into our original reporting and the questions we put to big thinkers in the field. Browse the archive here. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Toddlers love bedtime stories. Some kids like to reread the...
Vietnamese YouTuber Is Filling Information Voids with Newsmax and Breitbart
This article is copublished with The Oaklandside, a nonprofit newsroom that amplifies community voices, shares trustworthy information, and investigates systems, not symptoms for Oakland, Calif. Sonia Ohlala’s YouTube videos usually begin with a friendly greeting in Vietnamese. From the grandpas and grandmas out there, ông and bà, to the uncles...
The Government Segregated America. Here’s How Everyday People Desegregate It
Hi, I’m Aaron Sankin, and I’m a reporter here at The Markup. My beat is nominally the intersection of technology and inequality, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m actually a real estate reporter. A couple of years ago, I published an investigation into a...
Blacklight Updated With New Tracker Lists
Blacklight, our online tool that allows users to scan any website for tracking technologies, is being updated to detect new trackers. On Thursday, June 1 readers can use the updated version of the tool. One key feature of Blacklight is showing users which companies’ trackers are present on a website....
How We Built a Real-time Privacy Inspector
Blacklight is a real-time website privacy inspector. The tool emulates how a user might be surveilled while browsing the web. Users type a URL into Blacklight, and it visits the requested website, scans for known types of privacy violations, and returns an instant privacy analysis of the inspected site. Blacklight...
The Markup Wins Two SND Best of News Design Awards
The Markup won multiple awards in the Society for News Design’s Best of News Design Creative Competition, which honors excellence in visual storytelling, design, and journalism produced in 2022. The Markup’s investigation “Dollars to Megabits, You May Be Paying 400 Times As Much As Your Neighbor for Internet Service”...
An Algorithm Decides Who Gets a Liver Transplant. Here Are 5 Things to Know.
Hello World is a weekly newsletter—delivered every Saturday morning—that goes deep into our original reporting and the questions we put to big thinkers in the field. Browse the archive here. Hello,. I’m Malena Carollo, and I’m an investigative reporter here at The Markup. I write stories about broken...
Section 230 Just Survived a Brush with Death
For those of you worried about the Supreme Court breaking the internet, you can breathe easy. The court left Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act unscathed—for now—in opinions released today on two closely watched cases that many observers worried could shake the foundations of online discourse had they gone differently.
The Markup Internships: As Intense and Rewarding As Our Journalism
We’re approaching the summer season, and for The Markup that means it’s the most wonderful time of the year—time to hire interns!. We strive to make our internships engaging, rewarding, and valuable. It’s a commitment; like everything we do at The Markup, our hiring process is rigorous, methodical, and obsessed with fairness. That takes time. Likewise, our approach to supporting and mentoring students is hands-on for all involved. It is something we feel strongly about in service to our mission, the journalistic community, and of course, the budding professionals we have the privilege of working with.
The Color of Data
Hello World is a weekly newsletter—delivered every Saturday morning—that goes deep into our original reporting and the questions we put to big thinkers in the field. Browse the archive here. Hello,. My name is Maddy Varner, and I’m an investigative data journalist here at The Markup. When I’m...
Slow Internet? Find Out What Side of the Digital Divide You’re On
This article was copublished with Big Local News, a Stanford effort that uses data, tools, and collaborations to empower journalists to better cover their community. Explore the platform and membership benefits. Does your neighborhood pay more money for slower internet compared to neighborhoods across town? This step-by-step guide helps you...
Stitching Your Own Safety Net
Hello World is a weekly newsletter—delivered every Saturday morning—that goes deep into our original reporting and the questions we put to big thinkers in the field. Browse the archive here. Over the last several months I had the privilege of editing “False Alarm,” Todd Feathers’ nuanced, thought-provoking investigation...
10 Million Blacklight Scans Later, Here’s What You Found
Nearly three years ago we launched Blacklight, an online tool that allows users to enter any website and find out what tracking technologies are present and who gets the visitor data they collect. This month, Blacklight hit a significant milestone: The tool has successfully conducted more than 10 million scans....
In AI We (Don’t) Trust
Hello World is a weekly newsletter—delivered every Saturday morning—that goes deep into our original reporting and the questions we put to big thinkers in the field. Browse the archive here. In recent months, millions of people seem to be increasingly enthused by AI and chatbots. There’s a particular...
A Crucial Link in the Nation’s Organ Donation Process Is Failing
Nonprofits tasked with shoring up the country’s supply of donated organs for transplant are overwhelmingly underperforming at their job, according to federal data released Friday, contributing to a national organ shortage. The data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is part of new standards for measuring...
Takeaways from Our Investigation into Wisconsin’s Racially Inequitable Dropout Algorithm
Early warning systems that use machine learning to predict student outcomes (such as dropping out, scoring well on the ACTs, or attending college) are common in K-12 and higher education. Wisconsin public schools use an algorithmic model called the Dropout Early Warning System (DEWS) to predict how likely middle school students are to graduate from high school on time. Twice a year, schools receive a list of their enrolled students with DEWS’ color-coded prediction next to each name: green for low risk, yellow for moderate risk, or red for high risk of dropping out.
Copyright Showdown: AI’s Next Frontier
Hello World is a weekly newsletter—delivered every Saturday morning—that goes deep into our original reporting and the questions we put to big thinkers in the field. Browse the archive here. Before they gobbled up headlines everywhere, large language models ingested truly staggering amounts of data to train their...
The Secret Water Footprint of AI Technology
Hello World is a weekly newsletter—delivered every Saturday morning—that goes deep into our original reporting and the questions we put to big thinkers in the field. Browse the archive here. Hot takes on artificial intelligence are everywhere: Depending on where you look, generative AI will either kill us,...
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The Markup is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful institutions are using technology to change our society.
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