The National Public Radio All Tech Considered series recently released a very interesting segment: “Social Network Nextdoor Moves To Block Racial Profiling Online.” This is a very encouraging move, as Nextdoor posts often reinforce racial stereotypes, and these virtual actions can have very serious real world implications. Preliminary tests of Nextdoor’s efforts have reduced racial profiling by as much as 75%. Hopefully they will have similar success when the changes are widely implemented!
Comments 2
Peggy Rader — August 30, 2016
Dean Jacobs--A similar site here in the Cities (that I actually helped get started with Laura Weber!) has degenerated into a race-based "crime chatter" feed. I started posting in return asking for better descriptions than were being given. No change so I unsubscribed. Very glad NextDoor is doing this!
Walt Jacobs — September 8, 2016
Thanks for the note, Peggy. Let's hope that the Nextdoor experiment works, and that other online forums adopt their practices!