We at the Racism and Technology Center stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We condemn the violence enacted against the innocent people in Palestine and Israel, and mourn alongside all who are dead, injured and still missing. Palestinian communities are being subjected to unlawful collective punishment in Gaza and the West Bank, including the ongoing bombings and the blockade of water, food and energy. We call for an end to the blockade and an immediate ceasefire.
Continue reading “Standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people”UK police facial recognition: Another chapter in a long story of racist Technology
The UK police admitted that their facial recognition technology has a significant racial bias.
Continue reading “UK police facial recognition: Another chapter in a long story of racist Technology”She had to catfish herself as a white woman to get a job: AI-mediated racism on LinkedIn and in recruiting
After being ghosted by numerous recruiters during her unemployment, Aliyah Jones, a Black woman, decided to create a LinkedIn ‘catfish’ account under the name Emily Osborne, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white woman eager to advance her career in graphic design. The only difference between ‘Emily’ and Jones? Their names and skin colour. Their work experience and capabilities were the same.
Continue reading “She had to catfish herself as a white woman to get a job: AI-mediated racism on LinkedIn and in recruiting”Microsoft will update its English (UK) dictionaries with a more inclusive name database
We wrote about the I am not a typo campaign before. They have shared good news with us: “Responding to feedback from customers and working with members of the I Am Not A Typo campaign, Microsoft has implemented product updates to ensure its dictionary better reflects the names of people living in modern, multicultural Britain, using official Office for National Statistics (ONS) baby name data as a guide.”
Continue reading “Microsoft will update its English (UK) dictionaries with a more inclusive name database”Racist Technology in Action: The algorithm that was supposed to match asylum seekers to places with jobs doesn’t work and is discriminatory
For many years and for many people, GeoMatch by the Immigration Policy Lab was a shining example of ‘AI for Good’: instead of using algorithms to find criminals or fraud, why don’t we use it to allocate asylum seekers to regions that give them the most job opportunities? Only the naive can be surprised that this didn’t work out as promised.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: The algorithm that was supposed to match asylum seekers to places with jobs doesn’t work and is discriminatory”Digital Omnibus: the EU’s dangerous deregulation campaign is selling us all out
This Wednesday, November 19th, the European Commission will publish its Digital Omnibus proposal following an intransparent and undemocratic process. Leaked documents reveal it would be “the biggest rollback of digital fundamental rights in EU history.”
Continue reading “Digital Omnibus: the EU’s dangerous deregulation campaign is selling us all out”Google starts a new partnership with the UAE during an ongoing genocide in Sudan
Reported by Prism Reports, Google Cloud announced significant investments in advanced cloud capabilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in April 2025 this year, even though the country is heavily involved in the ongoing genocide in Sudan, which has so far killed over 150,000 people.
Continue reading “Google starts a new partnership with the UAE during an ongoing genocide in Sudan”Racist Technology in Action: The caste bias in large language models
The MIT Technology Review shows how the models of major AI companies, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, reflect India’s caste bias.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: The caste bias in large language models”The entanglement of the (Dutch) government and Big Tech when it comes to AI
De Balie organised an evening with Madhumita Murgia about her recent book Code-Dependent. Our own Naomi Appelman was asked to reflect on the book.
Continue reading “The entanglement of the (Dutch) government and Big Tech when it comes to AI”50% of the profiling algorithms used by the Dutch tax office are discriminatory and therefore unlawful according to the Data Protection Authority
The Dutch tax office is plagued by one problem after another. The Child Benefits Scandal was supposed to be a wake-up call, but apparently, their system use is so atrophied that they can’t seem to do what is needed. Follow the Money reports on a letter from the Dutch data protection authority to the Minister of Finance, which argues that the tax office uses 50 algorithms that use discriminatory profiling and are therefore potentially unlawful.
Continue reading “50% of the profiling algorithms used by the Dutch tax office are discriminatory and therefore unlawful according to the Data Protection Authority”Racist Technology in Action: OpenAI’s Sora Launch: Yet another racist generative AI
The Guardian reports that OpenAI’s new AI video generator, Sora 2, launched with a social feed feature that allows users to share their generated videos on social media platforms easily. Predictably, within hours, violent and racist videos generated through Sora flooded these platforms. Despite OpenAI claiming to have implemented safeguards and mitigating measures, the app generated videos depicting mass shootings, bomb scares, and fabricated war footage from Gaza and Myanmar, showing AI-generated children.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: OpenAI’s Sora Launch: Yet another racist generative AI”Dutch police and military secretly work with evil tech giant Palantir
Recent investigative reporting by Follow the Money has revealed significant concerns regarding the Netherlands’ extensive reliance on the immoral American data analytics firm Palantir Technologies for both police and military operations since 2010.
Continue reading “Dutch police and military secretly work with evil tech giant Palantir”New EU deportation law must be rejected
In March 2025, the European Commission presented a new proposal for a Return Regulation – more aptly named, the Deportation Regulation – to replace its current Return Directive.
Continue reading “New EU deportation law must be rejected”Racist Technology in Action: Scientists show that TikTok is racist, sexist, and disgusting
Last June, researchers quantitatively proved the racist, misogynistic and appalling practices by TikTok. Comparing TikTok’s different metrics of the popular beauty filter, Bold Glamour, and cross-referencing the results with the social media company’s own “inclusivity policies”.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Scientists show that TikTok is racist, sexist, and disgusting”UN rapporteur exposes tech companies’ role in Israel’s “Economy of Genocide”
Earlier this month, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese released another damning report titled From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide (PDF) which names over 60 companies profiting from Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories.
Continue reading “UN rapporteur exposes tech companies’ role in Israel’s “Economy of Genocide””Setting the record straight: Scientists show that the algorithm that Proctorio used is incredibly biased towards people with a darker skin colour
Do you remember when our Robin Pocornie filed a complaint with the Dutch Human Rights Institute because Proctorio, the spyware that she was forced to use as a proctor for doing her exams from home, couldn’t find her face as it was “too dark”? (If not, read the dossier of her case.)
Continue reading “Setting the record straight: Scientists show that the algorithm that Proctorio used is incredibly biased towards people with a darker skin colour”Racist Technology in Action: GoFundMe blocks Palestinian aid fundraisers
GoFundMe is actively blocking Palestinian aid fundraisers, withholding large sums of money or shutting down critical fundraising pages. Many critics have stated that GoFundMe disproportionately restricts Gaza-related pages rather than those for other causes, such as Ukraine or Israel.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: GoFundMe blocks Palestinian aid fundraisers”Complicity in genocide: Follow the Money reveals Dutch universities’ ties with Israel’s defence industry through EU Horizon Projects
An investigation by Follow the Money reveals that Dutch universities are participating in at least 28 European Union-funded research projects with Israeli partners that potentially benefit the Israeli military, despite EU rules prohibiting military applications.
Continue reading “Complicity in genocide: Follow the Money reveals Dutch universities’ ties with Israel’s defence industry through EU Horizon Projects”New York City uses a secret Child Welfare Algorithm
New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) has been secretly using an AI risk assessment system since 2018 to flag families for additional investigation. This Markup investigation reveals how this algorithm mainly affects families of colour and raises serious questions about algorithmic bias against racialised and poor families in child welfare.
Continue reading “New York City uses a secret Child Welfare Algorithm”Racist Technology in Action: How the municipality of Amsterdam tried to roll out a ‘fair’ fraud detection algorithm. Spoiler alert: it was a disaster
Amsterdam officials’ technosolutionist way of thinking struck once again: they believed they could build technology that would prevent fraud while protecting citizens’ rights through their “Smart Check” AI system.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: How the municipality of Amsterdam tried to roll out a ‘fair’ fraud detection algorithm. Spoiler alert: it was a disaster”Amnesty report (yet again) exposes racist AI in UK police forces
Amnesty International UK’s report Automated Racism (from last February, PDF), reveals that almost three-quarters of UK police forces use discriminatory predictive policing systems that perpetuate racial profiling. At least 33 deploy AI tools that predict crime locations and profile individuals as future criminals based on biased historical data, perpetuating and entrenching racism and inequality.
Continue reading “Amnesty report (yet again) exposes racist AI in UK police forces”AI in healthcare: Racism affects who gets to have lifesaving drug treatments
The genomics field, where bioinformatics algorithms play a significant role, remains deeply entangled with societal inequalities.
Continue reading “AI in healthcare: Racism affects who gets to have lifesaving drug treatments”SurveillanceWatch.io: We can now watch spyware companies back!
If you have been looking for an overview of which privacy-infringing surveillance systems are deployed or issued by your country, we have found just the tool.
Continue reading “SurveillanceWatch.io: We can now watch spyware companies back!”Join the (Dutch) Masterclass Net Politics!
To successfully govern our information society in the years to come, a solid understanding of technological developments is crucial. The Masterclass Net Politics is a series of meetings with speakers from Amnesty International, Bits of Freedom, Internet Society Netherlands, Open State Foundation, PublicSpaces, SetUp, Waag Futurelab, and yours truly: The Racism and Technology Center.
Continue reading “Join the (Dutch) Masterclass Net Politics!”Racist Technology in Action: Grok AI is obsessively focused on the extreme right trope of “white genocide” in South Africa
For a day or so, Musk’s Grok AI chatbot would add its belief in a “white genocide” in South Africa, by now a classic white supremacist fabrication, to nearly every answer it would give regardless of the question asked.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Grok AI is obsessively focused on the extreme right trope of “white genocide” in South Africa”Dutch Institute for Human Rights creates an evaluation framework for risk profiling and urges organisations to do more to prevent discrimination based on race and nationality
The Dutch Institute for Human Rights has published an evaluation framework for risk profiling intending to prevent discrimination based on race or nationality.
Continue reading “Dutch Institute for Human Rights creates an evaluation framework for risk profiling and urges organisations to do more to prevent discrimination based on race and nationality”Racist Technology in Action: Mass Israeli censorship of pro-Palestine posts on Meta’s social media
Whistleblowers at Meta have shown how the Israeli government is requesting pro-Palestine posts to be censored, with Meta complying in most cases.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Mass Israeli censorship of pro-Palestine posts on Meta’s social media”Google acquires Israeli startup Wiz, marking a continuation of its complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the apartheid regime
Shortly after Israel escalated its violations of the ceasefire in Gaza, bombing and murdering hundreds of Palestinians, Google announced a USD$32 billion acquisition of Wiz.
Continue reading “Google acquires Israeli startup Wiz, marking a continuation of its complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the apartheid regime”‘Ethical’ AI in healthcare has a racism problem, and it needs to be fixed ASAP
We all know that racist algorithms can harm people across many sectors, and healthcare is no exception. In a powerful commentary published in CellPress, Ferryman et al. argue that racism must be treated as a core ethical issue in healthcare AI, not merely a flaw to be patched after deployment.
Continue reading “‘Ethical’ AI in healthcare has a racism problem, and it needs to be fixed ASAP”Racist Technology in Action: The Dutch Belastingdienst’s ‘Risk Analysis Model’
For about 20 years, the Dutch tax office used a home-brewed computer system (RAM) that brought the information about millions of taxpayers into one model. KPMG has looked at how the Belastingdienst used this system, and their findings are shocking.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: The Dutch Belastingdienst’s ‘Risk Analysis Model’”In Spain, an algorithm used by police to ‘combat’ gender violence determines whether women live or die
Lobna Hemid. Stefany González Escarraman. Eva Jaular (and her 11-month-old baby). The lives of these three women and an infant, amongst many others, tragically ended due to gender-related killings in Spain. As reported in this article, they were all classified as “low” or “negligible” risk by VioGén, despite reporting abuse to the police. In the case of Lobna Hemid, after reporting her husband’s abuse to the police and being assessed as “low risk” by VioGén, the police provided her with minimal protection, and weeks later, her husband stabbed her to death.
Continue reading “In Spain, an algorithm used by police to ‘combat’ gender violence determines whether women live or die”The phonetic overlap between ‘Trump’ and ‘racist’
For a while, when iPhone users dictated the word ‘racist’ to their phone, they shortly saw the word ‘Trump’ being written before it changed back to ‘racist’.
Continue reading “The phonetic overlap between ‘Trump’ and ‘racist’”A GPT tool deployed by the US government further facilitates and normalises fascism
The US Army has adopted an artificial intelligence tool called ‘CamoGPT’ to systematically remove and exclude references to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) from its training materials. This initiative aligns with an executive order from President Trump, signed on January 27th, titled Restoring America’s Fighting Force, which mandates the elimination of policies perceived as promoting “un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories” concerning race and gender.
Continue reading “A GPT tool deployed by the US government further facilitates and normalises fascism”Racist Technology in Action: An LA Times AI tool defending the KKK
The LA Times is adding AI-written alternative points of view to opinion columns, editorials, and commentary. To the surprise of no one, this AI then diminished the hate-drivenness of the Ku Klux Klan as a movement.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: An LA Times AI tool defending the KKK”In reaction to censorship and the genocide in Gaza, the Muslim community creates its own technological infrastructure
If you want to send money to help the Palestinian cause, there is a high chance your payment might get blocked somewhere. Same thing if you want to make a game about the Palestine experience and are trying to get it published in the app stores.
Continue reading “In reaction to censorship and the genocide in Gaza, the Muslim community creates its own technological infrastructure”Racist Technology in Action: Grok’s total lack of safeguards against generating racist content
Grok is the chatbot made by xAI, a startup founded by Elon Musk, and is the generative AI solution that is powering X (née Twitter). It has recently gained a new power to generate photorealistic images, including those of celebrities. This is a problem as its ‘guardrails’ are lacking: it willingly generates racist and other deeply problematic images.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: Grok’s total lack of safeguards against generating racist content”Congolese government files complaint against Apples’ complicity in violence in Congo
On 16 December 2024, the Democratic Republic of Congo filed criminal complaints against Apple and its subsidiaries in France and Belgium for concealing war crimes – pillaging and concealing the role of “blood minerals” – in its international supply chains, laundering forged materials and misleading consumers. They argue that Apple is complicit in crimes that are taking place in Congo.
Continue reading “Congolese government files complaint against Apples’ complicity in violence in Congo”Amnesty demands the Dutch government stop using any and all risk profiling
Amnesty takes a deep dive into the shameful racial and socio-economic discrimination against students in the DUO case (about which we’ve written here, here, and here) in their briefing titled Profiled Without Protection: Students in the Netherlands Hit By Discriminatory Fraud Detection System.
Continue reading “Amnesty demands the Dutch government stop using any and all risk profiling”Racist Technology in Action: AI tenant screening fails the ‘fairness’ test
SafeRent Solutions, an AI-powered tenant screening company, settled a lawsuit alleging that its algorithm disproportionately discriminated against Black and Hispanic renters and those relying on housing vouchers.
Continue reading “Racist Technology in Action: AI tenant screening fails the ‘fairness’ test”Tech workers face retaliation for Palestine solidarity
As we wrote earlier,, tech companies are deeply complicit in the current genocide in Gaza as well as the broader oppression in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Continue reading “Tech workers face retaliation for Palestine solidarity”Ruha Benjamin on Eugenics 2.0
UC Berkeley recently discovered a fund established in 1975 to fund research into eugenics. Nowadays, our (avowed) perspective on this ideology has changed, so they repurposed the fund and commissioned a series on the legacies of eugenics for the LA Review of Books.
Continue reading “Ruha Benjamin on Eugenics 2.0”