Ariana Tobin
Ariana is the crowdsourcing and engagement team editor at ProPublica, where she works to cultivate communities to inform our coverage.
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Ariana is the crowdsourcing and engagement team editor at ProPublica, working on community-sourced investigations. She has focused on technology and problematic labor practices, from Facebook-fueled discriminatory ads, large-scale layoffs of older workers at IBM and misclassified customer service representatives in the gig economy. Her reporting has contributed to three consecutive Gerald Loeb awards, two Edward R. Murrow awards, a SABEW Best in Business award and a Barlett & Steele bronze award.
She previously worked as an engagement editor at The Guardian, as a digital producer for APM’s Marketplace, and as a podcast producer at WNYC. There, she helped launch the multi-platform Bored and Brilliant and Infomagical series, which analyzed information on nearly 30,000 participants’ smartphone habits and earned her an Online News Association MJ Bear Fellowship. Her writing has appeared in outlets including The New Republic, The New York Times, the St. Louis Beacon and Bustle. She studied on a Fulbright grant in Minsk, Belarus. She is currently lead trainer for the Balkans Investigative Reporting Network’s Engaged Citizens Reporting program.
Facebook Finally Agrees to Eliminate Tool That Enabled Discriminatory Advertising
Six years after ProPublica revealed that Facebook allowed advertisers to exclude Black users and others, the company agreed to a settlement with the Justice Department to overhaul its ad algorithm system.
New Suit Seeks to Turn Arbitrations Against Top Customer Service Provider
Arise Virtual Solutions has been accused of cheating its vast network of customer service agents. The suit, which cites ProPublica’s reporting, seeks a decision that could trigger a wave of tiny legal actions.
“We’re Not Allowed to Hang Up”: The Harsh Reality of Working in Customer Service
In their own voices, seven customer service representatives reveal what it’s like being caught between abusive callers and demanding employers.
All a Gig-Economy Pioneer Had to Do Was “Politely Disagree” and the Labor Department Walked Away
An Obama administration Labor Department investigator estimated that Arise Virtual Solutions owed its network of 20,000 customer service agents $14.2 million. The company paid nothing.
Do You Work in Customer Service? We’d Like to Hear About Your Work-From-Home Jobs.
Have you worked with a contractor such as Arise, Sykes, LiveOps or Concentrix? We want to learn more about how customer service works at big companies like Apple, Intuit, Disney and Airbnb.
Meet the Customer Service Reps for Disney and Airbnb Who Have to Pay to Talk to You
Arise Virtual Solutions, part of the secretive world of work-at-home customer service, helps large corporations shed costs at the expense of workers. Now the pandemic is creating a boom in the industry.
Giving Voice to Alaska’s Unheard Sexual Assault Survivors
We’re publishing our most ambitious effort yet to give voice to those who have been sexually assaulted in Alaska. We have talked to hundreds of survivors over the past year who have shared their stories.
Local Reporting Network
Are You in Coronavirus Quarantine? Tell Us What Authorities Told You So We Can Make Sure It’s Right.
We’re collecting instructions state and local health departments have given about coronavirus quarantines. Help us hear from every state and city.
Facebook Ads Can Still Discriminate Against Women and Older Workers, Despite a Civil Rights Settlement
New research and Facebook’s own ad archive show that the company’s new system to ensure diverse audiences for housing and employment ads has many of the same problems as its predecessor.
Employers Used Facebook to Keep Women and Older Workers From Seeing Job Ads. The Federal Government Thinks That’s Illegal.
In a first, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that companies violated civil rights law through their use of Facebook’s targeting advertising.