Help Us Monitor Political Ads Online

ProPublica launches a “PAC” to scrutinize campaign ads on Facebook.

Have You Experienced Hate Speech on Facebook? We Want To Hear From You.

Help us investigate how Facebook’s censorship policies actually work.

Despite Disavowals, Leading Tech Companies Help Extremist Sites Monetize Hate

Most tech companies have policies against working with hate websites. Yet a ProPublica survey found that PayPal, Stripe, Newsmax and others help keep more than half of the most-visited extremist sites in business.

Facebook’s Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men From Hate Speech But Not Black Children

A trove of internal documents sheds light on the algorithms that Facebook’s censors use to differentiate between hate speech and legitimate political expression.

California to Investigate Racial Discrimination in Auto Insurance Premiums

The state’s insurance department is following up on our findings that eight auto insurers charge more in minority neighborhoods than in other neighborhoods with similar risk.

Any Half-Decent Hacker Could Break Into Mar-a-Lago

We tested internet security at four Trump properties. It’s not good.

How We Examined Racial Discrimination in Auto Insurance Prices

Minority Neighborhoods Pay Higher Car Insurance Premiums Than White Areas With the Same Risk

Our analysis of premiums and payouts in California, Illinois, Texas and Missouri shows that some major insurers charge minority neighborhoods as much as 30 percent more than other areas with similar accident costs.

How to Protect Your Digital Privacy in the Era of Public Shaming

Americans face unprecedented threats to the digital safety of their personal information. We offer nine tips to foil hackers, ransomware, online trackers, data brokers and other menaces.

Bias in Criminal Risk Scores Is Mathematically Inevitable, Researchers Say

ProPublica’s analysis of bias against black defendants in criminal risk scores has prompted research showing that the disparity can be addressed — if the algorithms focus on the fairness of outcomes.

Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

The site shows users how Facebook categorizes them. It doesn’t reveal the data it is buying about their offline lives.

Facebook Says it Will Stop Allowing Some Advertisers to Exclude Users by Race

Facebook says it will build a system to prevent advertisers from buying credit, housing or employment ads that exclude viewers by race.

Facebook Lets Advertisers Exclude Users by Race

Facebook’s system allows advertisers to exclude black, Hispanic, and other “ethnic affinities” from seeing ads.

Google Has Quietly Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking

Google is the latest tech company to drop the longstanding wall between anonymous online ad tracking and user’s names.

Breaking the Black Box: How Machines Learn to Be Racist

Artificial Intelligence is only as good as the patterns we teach it. To illustrate the sensitivity of AI systems, we built an AI engine that deduced synonyms from news articles published by different types of news organizations.

Breaking the Black Box: When Machines Learn by Experimenting on Us

As we enter the era of artificial intelligence, machines regularly conduct experiments on human behavior. Here’s a look at how software used by the New York Times and New York Post uses you to test their headlines.

When Algorithms Decide What You Pay

The phone you use, the computer you own and the ZIP code you live in can all be factors in what prices you see when shopping online. Welcome to the world of mass customization.

Breaking the Black Box: What Facebook Knows About You

We live in an era of increasing automation. But as machines make more decisions for us, it is increasingly important to understand the algorithms that produce their judgments.

Amazon Says It Puts Customers First. But Its Pricing Algorithm Doesn’t

Amazon bills itself as “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” Yet its algorithm is hiding the best deal from many customers.