Welcome to If Then, the show about how technology is changing our lives and our future.

I'm April Glazer.

And I'm Will Aremus.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to If Then. We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense,

a partnership between Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. We're recording this on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 11th. This week we'll discuss California's landmark decision

to eliminate cash bail for defendants in criminal cases and the

controversial system that will replace it. Instead of the grossly unfair practice of having

defendants buy their freedom while they await trial, California will now rely partially

on a risk assessment algorithm to determine who will return to court or who poses a threat

to the public. While ending the cash bail practice was seen as a

huge win in many circles, activists now fear replacing cash bail with an algorithmic risk

assessment could even further exacerbate racial profiling in the criminal justice system.

We'll also talk about a fresh debate over who gets to fact-check the news that appears in your

Facebook feed.

There was an outcry in media circles on Tuesday, after Facebook flagged a story from the liberal outlet think progress as false, all because the conservative outlet, the weekly standard,

had taken issue with the headline.

The story about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's statements on abortion has become a sort of test case for the credibility of Facebook's fact-checking efforts.

Then we'll be joined by Professor Sophia Umoja Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression, how search engines reinforce racism.

Lately, media coverage and congressional hearings have focused on potential anti-conservative bias among the big tech companies.

But Professor Noble's work suggests we may actually have a much different problem.

And lastly, we'll have Don't Close My Tabs, some of our favorite stories we saw on the web this week.

Hey, Will, how you doing?

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