Sisi Wei

Jan 4, 2024 | themarkup.org | Sisi Wei

The Gentle January series shares one practical privacy tip a day from a Markup staffer who actually uses the advice in their own life. I've been blocking ads on the internet for as long as I can remember. As a teenager, I started doing so because ads were ugly and I learned that browser extensions like Adblock Plus could automatically hide them. As I got older, I realized it wasn't just the visual intrusion that bothered me-it was a more personal intrusion as well.

Dec 9, 2023 | themarkup.org | Nabiha Syed |Sisi Wei

Hi, everyone—Nabiha and Sisi here to discuss something that’s been on our minds lately. We’re sadly all too aware of the crisis of news deserts: communities starved of credible, trustworthy information. With an election looming, the problems they pose rise to the level of a full-on threat to democracy. But because it’s the 2020s, we’re here to talk about a new and different type of hellscape that compounds the problem of news deserts—what we call news mirages. News mirages are entrancing.

Dec 7, 2023 | niemanlab.org | Sisi Wei

If communities living in a news desert are starved of credible, trustworthy information, then communities living in a news mirage are feasting on information that looks like trustworthy news — but isn’t news at all. We know the crisis of news mirages: Communities who are lacking access to reliable information and news are flooded with mis- and disinformation and nothing else. While people may take that information with a grain of salt, it’s still the only information they have.

Oct 19, 2023 | themarkup.org | Sisi Wei

We’re thrilled to welcome five new colleagues to The Markup. Their collective expertise includes statistical research, machine learning, network security, and ed tech. Their work will continue to push The Markup’s investigations, tools, and blueprints forward, as we use data-driven journalism and our own engineering expertise to reveal the hidden impacts of how tech is used, and further equip readers with the tools, knowledge, and agency to drive change.

Aug 2, 2023 | themarkup.org | Sisi Wei |Maria C. Puertas |María J. Puertas

Surveillance marketers are changing how they track you online, and The Markup is joining forces with Consumer Reports to investigate. But we need your help. Companies may now be tracking you in a way that’s completely undetectable by users and their devices.