investigating machines

The subjects and the technology in these investigations are varied but they’re all here because they show how journalists are investigating what is being served to people opaquely.

2024. Lighthouse Reports. Sweden’s suspicion machine

2024. El Confidencial. An algorithm defines the future of prisoners in Catalonia: now we know how it works (in Spanish)

2023. Lighthouse Reports. France’s digital inquisition (Caisse nationale des allocations familiales) & Methodology

2023. Lighthouse Reports. Inside the suspicion machine (Rotterdam’s welfare fraud algorithm) & Methodology & NICAR 2024 workshop

2022. Karen Hao. AI Colonialism (series)

2021. YouTube Regrets Reporter. Study report. Mozilla

2021. Inside TikTok’s algorithm. WSJ. Video & article

2021. Faife, Corin & Ng, Alfred. After repeatedly promising not to, Facebook keeps recommending political groups. The Markup & data

2021. Sankin, Aaron & Yin, Leon. Google Blocks Advertisers from Targeting Black Lives Matter YouTube Videos. The markup

2021. Rininsland, Lewis, Nevitt, Murgia, Ross, Wisniewska & Hannen. The emotion business: how companies are learning to read your mind. Financial Times

2021. Bayerischer Rundfunk. Objective or biased: on the questionable use of AI for job applications

2021. Mattu, Surya, Yin, Leon, Waller, Angie & Keegan, Jon. How we built a Facebook inspector (Citizen browser). The Markup

2020. Yin, Leon & Jeffries, Adrianne. How we investigated Google’s results. The Markup

2020. Yin, Leon, Jeffries, Adrianne & Mattu, Surya. How we examined Gmail’s treatment of political emails. The Markup

2020. Ferguson, Sam, Khoo, Anna, Homer, Alex, Lynch, Paul & Sherlock, Pete. Cookies on council benefits pages. BBC Data Unit & methodology breakdown

2019. Wall Street Journal. Blue Feed, Red Feed: see liberal Facebook and conservative Facebook, side by side

2018. Hill, Kashmir. People You May Know: a controversial Facebook feature

2018. Algorithm Watch & Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland. OpenSCHUFA

2017-18. Gizmodo. People you may know (Series)

2017. Asher, Jeff & Arthur, Rob. Inside the algorithm that tries to predict gun violence in Chicago. New York Times

2017. Keller, Michael. The Apple ‘kill list’: what your I-phone doesn’t want you to type. The Daily Beast

2016. Angwin, Julia, Parris Terry & Mattu, Surya. What Facebook knows about you. Propublica

2016. Angwin, Julia, Larson, Jeff, Mattu, Surya & Kirchner, Lauren. Machine bias (article). Propublica

2012-14. Lawson, Jeff & Shaw, Al. Message machine: reverse engineering the 2012 campaign. Propublica

2012. Valentino-DeVries, Jennifer et al. Websites Vary Prices, Deals Based on Users’ Information

Ongoing. Chaslot, Guillaume. Algotransparency (YouTube)

Ongoing. Machine bias (series). Propublica

Ongoing. YouTube Tracking Exposed