25. Vindu Goel, “Dismal Twitter Forecast and Flat User Growth Send Its Stock Lower,” New York Times, October 27, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/28/technology/twitter-q3-earnings.html.
26. Alex Sherman, Christopher Palmeri, and Sarah Frier, “Disney Dropped Twitter Pursuit Partly over Image,” Bloomberg, October 17, 2016, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-17/disney-said-to-have-dropped-twitter-pursuit-partly-over-image.
27. Eugene Kim, “Twitter Trolls Were Part of the Reason Why Salesforce Walked Away from a Deal,” Business Insider, October 17, 2016, http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-trolls-caused-salesforce-to-walk-away-from-deal-2016-10.
28. Twitter Safety, Twitter post, February 13, 2017 (1:02 p.m.), https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/831247282544599040.
29. Ariel Bogle, “Twitter Launches, and Then Kills, an Anti-abuse Effort within Hours,” Mashable, February 13, 2017, http://mashable.com/2017/02/13/twitter-list-notifications-abuse/#Fd1zC9Wl3mqd.
30. Alexa, “Reddit.com Traffic Statistics,” accessed February 17, 2017, http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/reddit.com.
31. Sarah Jeong, “Après moi, le déluge: What Went Wrong on Reddit,” Forbes, July 15, 2015, http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/07/15/apres-moi-le-deluge-what-went-wrong-on-reddit/#49c38d1670fe.
32. Reddit, “Removing Harassing Subreddits,” Reddit post: r/announcements, June 10, 2015, https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/39bpam/removing_harassing_subreddits.
33. Jeong, “Après moi, le déluge.”
34. David Spinks, “Distributed Control: How Reddit Is Taking the Management Out of Community Management,” CMX, June 9, 2014, http://cmxhub.com/erik-martin-reddit-community-interview.
35. Seth Fiegerman, “Aliens in the Valley: The Complete History of Reddit, the Internet’s Front Page,” Mashable, December 13, 2014, http://mashable.com/2014/12/03/history-of-reddit.
36. Aaron Sankin, “As Racist, Sexist Trolls Infest Reddit, Admins Do Nothing,” Daily Dot, August 27, 2014, http://www.dailydot.com/irl/reddit-rape-racist-comment-trolls-problem.
37. pro_creator (moderator), “We Have a Racist User Problem and Reddit Won’t Take Action,” Reddit post: r/blackladies, August 25, 2014, https://www.reddit.com/r/blackladies/comments/2ejg1b/we_have_a_racist_user_problem_and_reddit_wont.
38. Jeong, “Après moi, le déluge.”
39. Sarah Jeong, The Internet of Garbage, Forbes Signature Series (Jersey City, NJ: Forbes Media, 2015).
40. Nick Statt, “Reddit Bans Two Prominent Alt-Right Subreddits,” Verge, February 1, 2017, http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/1/14478948/reddit-alt-right-ban-altright-alternative-right-subreddits-doxing.
41. Alexis Ohanian, “An Open Letter to the Reddit Community,” Reddit post: r/blog, January 30, 2017, https://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/5r43td/an_open_letter_to_the_reddit_community.
42. Craig Silverman, “This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News on Facebook,” BuzzFeed, November 16, 2016, https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook.
43. Michael Nuñez, “Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News,” Gizmodo, May 9, 2016, http://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006.
44. Senator John Thune to Mark Zuckerberg, May 10, 2016, http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/fe5b7b75-8d53-44c3-8a20-6b2c12b0970d/C5CF587E2778E073A80A79E2A6F73705.fb-letter.pdf.
45. Joon Ian Wong, Dave Gershgorn, and Mike Murphy, “Facebook Is Trying to Get Rid of Bias in Trending News by Getting Rid of Humans,” Quartz, August 26, 2016, https://qz.com/768122/facebook-fires-human-editors-moves-to-algorithm-for-trending-topics.
46. Abby Ohlheiser, “Three Days after Removing Human Editors, Facebook Is Already Trending Fake News,” Washington Post, August 29, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/08/29/a-fake-headline-about-megyn-kelly-was-trending-on-facebook.
47. Michael Nuñez, “Want to Know What Facebook Really Thinks of Journalists? Here’s What Happened When It Hired Some,” Gizmodo, May 3, 2016, http://gizmodo.com/want-to-know-what-facebook-really-thinks-of-journalists-1773916117.
48. Will Oremus, “Trending Bad: How Facebook’s Foray into Automated News Went from Messy to Disastrous,” Slate, August 30, 2016, http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/08/how_facebook_s_trending_news_feature_went_from_messy_to_disastrous.html.
49. Victor Luckerson, “Here’s Why Facebook Won’t Put Your News Feed in Chronological Order,” Time, July 9, 2015, http://time.com/3951337/facebook-chronological-order.
50. Josh Constine, “Facebook’s S-1 Letter from Zuckerberg Urges Understanding before Investment,” TechCrunch, February 1, 2012, https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/01/facebook-ipo-letter.
51. Mark Zuckerberg, “Building Global Community,” Facebook post, February 16, 2017, https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/building-global-community/10154544292806634.
52. “When FOMO Meets JOMO,” Note to Self, WNYC, January 20, 2016, http://www.wnyc.org/story/fomo-jomo.
Chapter 9: Meritocracy Now, Meritocracy Forever
1. From Brian S. Hall’s now-deleted article in Forbes, “There Is No Diversity Crisis in Tech,” which he reposted at Medium.com on October 7, 2015: https://medium.com/@brianshall/the-article-on-diversity-in-tech-that-forbes-took-down-15cfd28d5639#.sp3ogqmuw.
2. Michael Young, “Down with Meritocracy,” Guardian, June 28, 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/29/comment.
3. Sarah McBride, “Insight: In Silicon Valley Start-up World, Pedigree Counts,” Reuters, September 12, 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-startup-connections-insight-idUSBRE98B15U20130912.
4. Vivek Wadhwa, “Silicon Valley: You and Some of Your VC’s Have a Gender Problem,” TechCrunch, February 7, 2010, https://techcrunch.com/2010/02/07/silicon-valley-you%E2%80%99ve-got-a-gender-problem-and-some-of-your-vc%E2%80%99s-still-live-in-the-past.
5. Claire Burke and Kate Dwyer, “2016 Review of Female Founders Raising Institutional Capital,” Female Founders Fund, February 1, 2017, http://femalefoundersfund.com/2016-review-of-female-founders-raising-institutional-capital/#sthash.Snz0RmSe.dpbs.
6. Kim-Mai Cutler, “Sexism in the Venture Business? Sequoia’s Greg McAdoo Says VC Industry Is a ‘Meritocracy,’” TechCrunch, May 23, 2012, https://techcrunch.com/2012/05/23/no-sexism-here-sequoias-greg-mcadoo-says-venture-business-is-a-meritocracy.
7. Jodo Kantor, “A Brand New World in Which Men Ruled,” New York Times, December 23, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/23/us/gender-gaps-stanford-94.html.
8. Lauren Orsini, “Why GitHub’s CEO Ditched Its Divisive ‘Meritocracy’ Rug,” ReadWrite, January 24, 2014, http://readwrite.com/2014/01/24/github-meritocracy-rug.
9. Adrienne LaFrance, “Is Silicon Valley a Meritocracy?” Atlantic, October 13, 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/10/is-silicon-valley-a-meritocracy/503948.
10. Susan J. Fowler, “Reflecting on One Very, Very Strange Year at Uber,” Susan J. Fowler (blog), February 19, 2017, https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber.
11. Everett Rosenfeld, “Uber CEO Orders ‘Urgent Investigation’ after Allegation of Harassment, Gender Bias at Company,” CNBC, February 19, 2017, http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/19/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-says-orders-urgent-investigation-after-allegation-of-harassment-gender-bias-at-company.html.
12. Steven Overly, “Uber Hires Eric Holder to Investigate Sexual Harassment Claims,” Washington Post, February 21, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/02/21/uber-hires-eric-holder-to-investigate-sexual-harassment-claims.
13. Kara Swisher, “Uber’s SVP of Engineering Is Out After He Did Not Disclose He Left Google in a Dispute over a Sexual Harassment Allegation,” Recode, February 27, 2017, http://www.recode.net/2017/2/27/14745360/amit-singhal-google-uber.
14. Eric New
comer and Olivia Zaleski, “When Their Shifts End, Uber Drivers Set Up Camp in Parking Lots across the U.S.,” Bloomberg, January 23, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-23/when-their-shifts-end-uber-drivers-set-up-camp-in-parking-lots-across-the-u-s.
15. Johana Bhuiyan, “For Some People Looking to Dump Uber, the #deleteUber Campaign Simply Sealed the Deal,” Recode, January 30, 2017, https://www.recode.net/2017/1/30/14445122/delete-uber-trump-protest-immigration-ban.
16. Mike Isaac, “Uber C.E.O. to Leave Trump Advisory Council after Criticism,” New York Times, February 2, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/technology/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-trump-advisory-council.html.
17. Eric Newcomer, “In Video, Uber CEO Argues with Driver over Falling Fares,” Bloomberg, February 28, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-28/in-video-uber-ceo-argues-with-driver-over-falling-fares.
18. Travis Kalanick, “A Profound Apology,” Uber Newsroom (blog), February 28, 2017, https://newsroom.uber.com/a-profound-apology.
19. Mickey Rapkin, “Uber Cab Confessions,” GQ, February 27, 2014, http://www.gq.com/story/uber-cab-confessions.
20. Nitasha Tiku, “Uber CEO on Driver ‘Assault’: It’s Not Real and We’re Not Responsible,” Valleywag, September 16, 2013, http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-ceo-on-driver-assault-its-not-real-and-were-n-1323533057.
21. Alison Griswold, “Uber Is Designed So That for One Employee to Get Ahead, Another Must Fail,” Quartz, February 27, 2017, https://qz.com/918582/uber-is-designed-so-that-for-one-employee-to-succeed-another-must-fail.
22. Amy Vertino, “I Am an Uber Survivor,” Medium, February 24, 2017, https://medium.com/@amyvertino/my-name-is-not-amy-i-am-an-uber-survivor-c6d6541e632f#.bitvjkvnd.
23. All data here come from National Science Foundation, “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering,” accessed February 17, 2017, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2017/nsf17310.
24. Steve Henn, “When Women Stopped Coding,” Planet Money, NPR, October 21, 2014, http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding.
25. Sylvia Ann Hewlett et al., The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology, Harvard Business Review Research Report, May 2008, https://hbr.org/product/the-athena-factor-reversing-the-brain-drain-in-science-engineering-and-technology/10094-PDF-ENG.
26. Catherine Ashcraft, Brad McLain, and Elizabeth Eger, “Women in Tech: The Facts,” National Center for Women & Information Technology, 2016, https://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/resources/ncwit_women-in-it_2016-full-report_final-web06012016.pdf.
27. Cate Huston, “The Day I Leave the Tech Industry,” Accidentally in Code: Engineering an Interesting Life (blog), July 28, 2014, http://www.catehuston.com/blog/2014/07/28/the-day-i-leave-the-tech-industry.
28. Katherine W. Phillips, “How Diversity Makes Us Smarter,” October 1, 2014, Scientific American, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter.
29. Samuel Sommers, “On Racial Diversity and Group Decision Making: Identifying Multiple Effects of Racial Composition on Jury Deliberations,” Journal of Personal Social Psychology 90, no. 4 (2006): 597–612, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16649857.
30. Phillips, “How Diversity Makes Us Smarter.”
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Anil Dash, “There Is No Technology Industry,” Humane Tech, August 19, 2016, https://medium.com/humane-tech/there-is-no-technology-industry-44774dfb3ed7.
34. Andrew J. Hawkins, “Can Uber Be Saved from Itself?” Verge, March 6, 2017, http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/6/14791080/
35. David Rock, Heidi Grant, and Jacqui Grey, “Diverse Teams Feel Less Comfortable—and That’s Why They Perform Better,” Harvard Business Review, September 22, 2016, https://hbr.org/2016/09/diverse-teams-feel-less-comfortable-and-thats-why-they-perform-better.
36. Jeff Bercovici, “Slack Is Our Company of the Year. Here’s Why Everybody’s Talking about It,” Inc., December 2015/January 2016, https://www.inc.com/magazine/201512/jeff-bercovici/slack-company-of-the-year-2015.html.
37. Tracy Lien, “‘Ridiculous and Amazing’ Slack Messaging App Keeps Human Users in Mind,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2015, http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-slack-butterfield-fun-20151022-story.html.
38. “Diversity and Inclusion: An Update on Our Data,” Several People Are Typing (blog), Slack, February 3, 2016, https://slackhq.com/diversity-and-inclusion-an-update-on-our-data-7af803cedae4#.y2mdq445y.
39. Josh Constine, “Slack’s Rapid Growth Slows as It Hits 1.25M Paying Work Chatters,” TechCrunch, October 20, 2016, https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/20/slunk.
40. Ross Mayfield, “The Coming Tech Backlash” NewCo Shift, January 3, 2017, https://shift.newco.co/the-coming-tech-backlash-82b22e0c1198#.hclufme9b.
41. Anna Wiener, “It’s Getting Harder to Believe in Silicon Valley,” Atlan-tic, March 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/the-shine-comes-off-silicon-valley/513815.
Chapter 10: Technically Dangerous
1. Lymari Morales, “Knowing Someone Gay/Lesbian Affects Views of Gay Issues,” Gallup, May 29, 2009, http://www.gallup.com/poll/118931/knowing-someone-gay-lesbian-affects-views-gay-issues.aspx.
2. Ben Guarino, “Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Was Associated with Fewer Youth Suicide Attempts, New Study Finds,” Washington Post, February 21, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/21/legalizing-same-sex-marriage-was-associated-with-fewer-youth-suicide-attempts-new-study-found.
3. Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, “The Influence of State Laws on the Mental Health of Sexual Minority Youth,” JAMA Pediatrics, February 20, 2017, http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2604254.
4. Mike Isaac, “How Uber Deceives Authorities Worldwide,” New York Times, March 3, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html.
5. Anders Bylund, “Why Twitter, Inc. Fell 10% in February,” Motley Fool, March 3, 2017, https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/03/why-twitter-inc-fell-10-in-february.aspx.
6. Hudson Hongo, “Facebook Finally Rolls Out ‘Disputed News’ Tag Everyone Will Dispute,” Gizmodo, March 3, 2017, http://gizmodo.com/facebook-finally-rolls-out-disputed-news-tag-everyone-w-1792959827.
7. Spencer Woodman, “Palantir Provides the Engine for Donald Trump’s Deportation Machine,” Intercept, March 2, 2017, https://theintercept.com/2017/03/02/palantir-provides-the-engine-for-donald-trumps-deportation-machine.
Index
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Note: Italic page numbers refer to illustrations.
Abler, Erin, 32–33
Acxiom data brokers, 104
advertising
and collection of gender information, 65–66
Facebook’s selections for users, 10
and filtering, 65
and proxy data, 110–112
and Reddit, 162
and value of user data, 96
Airbnb, 20
Alciné, Jacky, 129–130, 132–133, 135, 137–138
alcohol use, 17–18
algorithms
biases in, 144–145, 176
and clean design aesthetic, 143
and COMPAS, 120–121, 125–129, 145
and debiasing word-embedding systems, 140
described, 121–123
and edge cases, 137
and Facebook’s use of proxy data, 112
and Friends Day Facebook feature, 84
and Google, 123, 136, 144
and neural networks, 131–133
and News Feed Facebook feature, 168
and social media trends, 10
and training data, 145–146, 171
and Trending Facebook feature, 149, 166–167, 169
and Yelp, 123–125<
br />
Allen, Paul, 182
AltaVista, 2
alt-right movement, 153, 164
Apple
and emoji suggestions, 80
iPhone location settings, 105–108
and Siri’s female voice, 36
and Siri’s responses to crises, 6–7, 7
and Siri’s teasing humor, 88–89
smartwatches from, 13
and use of personas, 27
and workforce diversity, 19–20
artificial intelligence
and failure to understand crises, 6–7
and loss of jobs, 192
Siri as, 88–89
word-embedding systems, 139–140
Automattic, 183
“average” users, 38–44, 47
Barron, Jesse, 114–115
Batman, Miranda, 57
Bawcombe, Libby, 40–42
Beyoncé, 55
bias. See also gender bias; political bias; racial bias
in algorithms, 144–145, 176
in default settings, 35–38, 61
of Facebook’s creators, 168–172
of Twitter’s creators, 150, 158–160
binary choices, 62
Black Lives Matter movement, 81
Bouie, Jamelle, 61
Brown, Mike, 163
Brown Eyes, Lance, 54
Butterfield, Stewart, 190–191
BuzzFeed, 157, 165–166
cares about us (CAU) metric, 97
caretaker speech, 114–115
celebrations. See misplaced celebrations and humor
COMPAS (Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions), 119–121, 125–129, 136, 145
computer science, and tech industry pipeline, 21–26, 181–182
Cook, Tim, 19
Cooper, Sarah, 24
Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS), 119–121, 125–129, 136, 145
Technically Wrong Page 19