Below are stories of individuals fighting for justice against systemic discrimination from Algorithms of Oppression and Coded Bias.
Algorithms of Oppression
In Algorithms of Oppression, author Safiya Noble recounts an experience with systemic racism in search engines from the spring of 2011. She described searching for engaging activities and conversations for her stepdaughter and nieces to address their experiences as girls growing up in a predominantly conservative community. Yet, when she had “opened up Google to enter in search terms that would reflect their interests, demographics, and information needs,” she was presented with a page filled with porn (pg. 17). A simple search result had revealed the algorithmic racism and sexism against black women in a platform meant to be neutral and informative for its users. If the young girls themselves had googled a similar search, how would their results page impact their own conceptions about identity? In an era where a majority of our lives lies on the screen, whether through search engines or social media, built-in algorithmic discriminations are inescapable. Thus, Noble attempts to combat this indignation through her work in educating the public about such oppressive systems. She states:
“I consider my work a practical project, the goal of which is to eliminate social injustice and change the ways in which people are oppressed with the aid of allegedly neutral technologies” (pg 13).
Brooklyn, NY
In 2019, the Brooklyn Legal Services Tenants Rights Coalition successfully filed a motion to block efforts by the landlord to install a face recognition entry system. This is an example of how a dedicated group of people can come together to push back on the encroachment of facial recognition on their rights in their communities and homes.
We hope that the Brooklyn tenants victory can serve as a model for other tenant groups to push back against landlord installation of facial recognition until these technologies are banned from residential spaces. This fight is hitting home for people across the country as landlords continue to implement these systems on the proposed grounds of security and convenience without any protection or oversight.
London, UK
Big Brother Watch is a UK civil liberties campaign group fighting for a free future. We’re determined to reclaim our privacy and defend freedoms at this time of enormous technological change. And we fight to win.
We’re a fiercely independent, diverse, non-partisan and non-profit group of campaigners and researchers, who work to roll back the surveillance state and protect rights in parliament, the media, and the courts if we have to. We publish unique investigations and pursue powerful public campaigns to pursue real change. We work relentlessly to inform and empower the public to collectively reclaim privacy, defend our civil liberties, and protect freedoms for the future.