Ariana Tobin

Crowdsourcing and Engagement Team Editor

Photo of Ariana Tobin

Ariana is the crowdsourcing and engagement team editor at ProPublica, working on community-sourced investigations. She has focused on technology and problematic labor practices, from Facebook-fueled discriminatory ads, large-scale layoffs of older workers at IBM and misclassified customer service representatives in the gig economy. Her reporting has contributed to three consecutive Gerald Loeb awards, two Edward R. Murrow awards, a SABEW Best in Business award and a Barlett & Steele bronze award.

She previously worked as an engagement editor at The Guardian, as a digital producer for APM’s Marketplace, and as a podcast producer at WNYC. There, she helped launch the multi-platform Bored and Brilliant and Infomagical series, which analyzed information on nearly 30,000 participants’ smartphone habits and earned her an Online News Association MJ Bear Fellowship. Her writing has appeared in outlets including The New Republic, The New York Times, the St. Louis Beacon and Bustle. She studied on a Fulbright grant in Minsk, Belarus. She is currently lead trainer for the Balkans Investigative Reporting Network’s Engaged Citizens Reporting program.

Long Lines Test Voter Patience Across the Nation

With waits at polling places sometimes exceeding an hour, some voters turn away as poll workers wrestle with malfunctioning equipment and overflow crowds.

Amid Accusations of Age Bias, IBM Winds Down a Push for Millennial Workers

Several age-discrimination lawsuits and investigations have cited IBM’s Millennial Corps as evidence of the company’s bias toward younger workers. Now, it seems, the company is bringing this effort to an end.

Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

A review by ProPublica found that 15 employers in the past year, including Uber, have advertised jobs on Facebook exclusively to one sex, with many of the ads playing to stereotypes.

Besieged Facebook Says New Ad Limits Aren’t Response to Lawsuits

The social network is removing 5,000 options that regulators say enable advertisers to discriminate.

Did You Go to a Washington Nationals Game With Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh?

Trump’s pick is a baseball fan who racked up considerable debt buying season tickets. Help us figure out who went with the nominated judge.

Facebook Promises to Bar Advertisers From Targeting Ads by Race or Ethnicity. Again.

Settling an investigation by the state of Washington prompted by a ProPublica story, the social networking company said it would no longer allow advertisers to exclude users by any federally protected categories.

Updated: Facebook Political Ad Collector

See how political advertisers target you. Use this database to search for political ads based on who was meant to see them.

Facebook’s Screening for Political Ads Nabs News Sites Instead of Politicians

The social network is letting some political ads slip through without the required verification, while blocking promotional posts by news organizations, which are pushing back.

What Facebook’s New Political Ad System Misses

Facebook announced a new system to make political ads more transparent. It’s got holes.

Did Your Employer Ask You to Sign Away Your Right to Talk? We Want to Know About It.

We hope to learn more about what effect nondisclosure agreements have on people’s lives and careers.

Video: How IBM Is Quietly Pushing Out Aging Workers

Our latest in the Vox-ProPublica collaboration explores how IBM sidestepped age discrimination laws

We Have Some Follow-Ups for Facebook — And We Want Your Help

Senators held Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to account today, grilling him while often citing our investigations. You can help keep Facebook accountable, too.

Fair Housing Groups Sue Facebook for Allowing Discrimination in Housing Ads

Borrowing from ProPublica’s playbook, advocates created fake companies and bought discriminatory ads on the social network.

How the Crowd Led Us to Investigate IBM

Our project started with a digital community of ex-employees.

Cutting ‘Old Heads’ at IBM

As it scrambled to compete in the internet world, the once-dominant tech company cut tens of thousands of U.S. workers, hitting its most senior employees hardest and flouting rules against age bias.

Got a Question About Work in the Wake of #MeToo? You’re Not Alone.

There are a lot of problems in the way workplaces are run that enable sexual harassers. The Harvard Business Review wants to hear about your concerns.

Red Cross General Counsel David Meltzer Resigns Over Handling of Sexual Assault and Harassment Allegations

The charity’s CEO, Gail McGovern, announced Meltzer’s resignation this morning following a ProPublica story last week.

The Red Cross Helped an Executive Get a Job at Save the Children After Forcing Him Out for Sexual Harassment

A senior Red Cross official harassed a subordinate and was accused of raping another. The charity’s now-general counsel David Meltzer praised him on his way out for “leadership” and “dedication.”

What Does Facebook Consider Hate Speech?

Our analysis shows that Facebook’s content reviewers often make different calls on whether to allow or delete items with similar content. See the inconsistencies.

Facebook’s Uneven Enforcement of Hate Speech Rules Allows Vile Posts to Stay Up

We asked Facebook about its handling of 49 posts that might be deemed offensive. The company acknowledged that its content reviewers had made the wrong call on 22 of them.

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