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.
New York Is Investigating Whether Facebook Lets Advertisers Discriminate
The state’s Department of Financial Services will look into allegations, first exposed by ProPublica, that advertisers can exclude users by race, gender, age and other characteristics that are protected under federal law.
Civil Rights Groups Have Been Warning Facebook About Hate Speech In Secret Groups For Years
Facebook says its rules prohibit hate in secret groups, but it won’t discuss how it moderated the offensive Border Patrol posts — if it did anything at all.
People Are Using Secret Facebook Groups To Spread Hate We Can’t See. We Need Your Help.
We recently uncovered racist, sexist and hateful posts and comments in a secret group for current and former Border Patrol agents. Such groups are only visible to their members.
Did You Pay to Use TurboTax? Help Us Hold the Tax Prep Industry Accountable.
Readers have helped us figure out exactly how TurboTax maker Intuit and other companies make money off taxpayers. We want to hear more.
Have You Worked for Intuit or in a TurboTax Customer Support Role?
We’d like to hear about your experience in the tax prep software industry with companies like Intuit, H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt.
Here Are Your Stories of Being Tricked Into Paying by TurboTax. You Often Need the Money.
Help us reach more people. We need you to share some things.
HUD Sues Facebook Over Housing Discrimination and Says the Company’s Algorithms Have Made the Problem Worse
The charge comes a week after Facebook made major changes to its advertising platform, and two years after our reporting raised the issue.
Facebook Won’t Let Employers, Landlords or Lenders Discriminate in Ads Anymore
The sweeping changes come two years after ProPublica’s reporting, which sparked lawsuits and widespread outrage.
Facebook Moves to Block Ad Transparency Tools — Including Ours
Our tool had let the public see exactly how users were being targeted by advertisers. The social media giant urged us to shut it down last year.
What Engagement Reporting Does — and Doesn’t — Mean at ProPublica
So you’ve filled out a questionnaire, signed up for an investigation or talked with one of our engagement reporters. Here’s what to expect from this kind of journalism.