MMTC Seeks Federal Interagency Task Force to Study Discriminatory App Redlining Practice
NTIA should establish an interagency task force to study application redlining, the practice of discriminating against or racially profiling online minority users, in part through the collection and analysis of consumer data, said the Multicultural Media, Telecom & Internet Council…
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in a seven-page letter Friday directed to Administrator Larry Strickling. App redlining, wrote MMTC President Kim Keenan, is "a new method of institutionalizing online racial discrimination in commerce, housing, banking, employment, transportation, and public accommodations." She cited criticism against Google for alleged discriminatory ad practices through various applications like Gmail, Amazon's selective use of ZIP codes for one-day shopping that ended up "isolating places where minorities live," and the social networking site Nextdoor.com that has been used for online racial profiling. Since it's unclear which regulatory bodies have jurisdiction, she wrote that NTIA should discuss with the White House to create the task force. Both the FCC and FTC may have some regulatory overlap on internet commerce, but since the issue crosses other sectors, the departments of Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Justice as well as Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. should have an interest, she said. MMTC recommended the task force consider the need for equal employment opportunity in across industries, a civil rights enforcement entity focused on consumer privacy and "creation of best practices on misleading language that should not be welcome in the online space."