We pride ourselves on our journalism being actionable and having real-world impact. In 2024, we continued to do exactly that. Here are some examples
LA passed housing reforms to make the process more equitable after we exposed racial bias in the city’s housing intake system. https://themarkup.org/impact/2024/02/15/l-a-is-changing-how-it-scores-vulnerability-of-unhoused-people
Instagram restored content that it banned after we investigated the platform’s suppression of posts related to the Israel-Hamas war. https://themarkup.org/automated-censorship/2024/02/25/demoted-deleted-and-denied-theres-more-than-just-shadowbanning-on-instagram
Groups that defend students and advocate against online surveillance filed a federal lawsuit after we revealed that the Department of Education was sharing sensitive student data with Facebook.https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2024/07/26/department-of-education-sued-following-markup-investigation-into-fafsa-data-shared-with-facebook
After we reported that mortgage brokers were sending people’s estimated credit, address, and veteran status to Facebook, some companies immediately stopped doing so. https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2024/05/15/mortgage-brokers-sent-peoples-estimated-credit-address-and-veteran-status-to-facebook
NYC’s chatbot, which we found was frequently telling businesses to break the law, was quietly updated with a disclaimer that users should “not use its responses as legal or professional advice.” https://themarkup.org/news/2024/04/02/malfunctioning-nyc-ai-chatbot-still-active-despite-widespread-evidence-its-encouraging-illegal-behavior