Communications of the ACM

figure 1. ads from a Google search of three different names beginning with first name “Latanya.”

(a)

(b)

(c)

Assume the ads are free speech: what happens when these ads appear more often for one racial group than another? Not everyone is being equally affected by free speech. Is that free speech or racial discrimination?

Racism, as defined by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, is “any attitude, action, or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of their color.” 16 Racial discrimination results when a person or group of people is treated differently based on their racial origins, according to the Panel on Methods for Assessing Discrimination of the National Research Council. 12 Power is a necessary precondition, for it depends on the ability to give or withhold benefits, facilities, services, and opportunities from someone who should be entitled to them and is denied on the basis of race. Institutional or structural racism, as defined in The Social Work Dictionary, is a system of procedures/patterns whose effect is to foster discriminatory outcomes or give preferences to members of one group over another. 1

These considerations frame the relevant socio-legal landscape. Now we turn to whether online ads suggestive of arrest records appear more often for one racial group than another among a sample of racially associated names, and if so, how technology can solve the problem.

the Pattern

What is the suspected pattern of ad delivery? Here is an overview using real-world examples.

Earlier this year, a Google search for Latanya Farrell, Latanya Sweeney, and Latanya Lockett yielded ads and criminal reports like those shown in Figure 1. The ads appeared on Google.com (Figure 1a, 1c) and on a news website, Reuters.com, to which Google supplies ads (Figure 1c), All the ads in question linked to instantcheckmate.com ( Figure 1b, 1d). The first ad implied Latanya Farrell might have been arrested. Was she? Clicking on the link and paying the requisite fee revealed the company had no arrest record for her or Latanya Sweeney, but there is a record for Latanya Lockett.