POCIT. Telling the stories and thoughts of the underrepresented in tech. POCIT. Telling the stories and thoughts of the underrepresented in tech.
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Her Fake LinkedIn Profile Exposed Hiring Bias, Now She’s Turning Her Viral Series Into A Documentary

Aliyah Jones went viral after going undercover on LinkedIn as a white woman named Emily to expose racial bias in corporate hiring. The digital storyteller documented the eight-month experiment in her Corporate Catfish docuseries, which resonated with hundreds of thousands online. Now, she’s expanding that work into a full-length documentary exploring what it truly means to be Black in corporate America. A One-Time Experiment That Sparked a Movement “I made that fake white LinkedIn profile out of frustration but also out of grief,” Jones wrote on Kickstarter. “Because no matter

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ICE Is Keeping Its $2M Spyware Contract Under Wraps – Now The Media Are Suing

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing a lawsuit from 404 Media after failing to release details of a $2 million contract with Israeli spyware company Paragon. The investigative outlet filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in September 2024 seeking records related to the deal but received no substantial response, despite federal law requiring action within 20 business days. The lawsuit claims the documents could shed light on how the spyware is being deployed, especially in the context of ICE’s ongoing mass deportation efforts. What Is Paragon’s Spyware?

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Trump’s New $100K Fee For Foreign Worker Visas Leaves Tech Industry Scrambling

President Trump’s latest move on immigration is shaking up the tech industry and the global talent pipeline it relies on. On Friday, the White House announced that employers must now pay $100,000 for each new H-1B visa application, nearly 60 times the previous $215 lottery registration fee. The H-1B visa allows US companies to hire skilled foreign professionals in high-demand fields such as engineering, IT, and medicine. The program issues up to 85,000 new visas annually through a lottery system, including 20,000 reserved for US-trained graduate students. Ripple Effects Across Silicon Valley

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African Startups Raised $2B So Far This Year, Just 10% Went To Teams With A Female Founder

Woman working

Women-led startups continue to attract only a small portion of investment in Africa’s tech ecosystem. So far in 2025, male-led startups in Africa have received 75% of all funding raised. This leaves the remainder shared between women-led and mixed gender teams, according to the latest Africa Venture Pulse report by Briter, a research and business intelligence firm focused on emerging markets. Of the more than $2 billion raised across the continent, about 10% has gone to companies with at least one female founder. Gender funding gap in Africa Over the past

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How Black Women Can Protect Their Careers Amid Rising Unemployment

Hannah Awonuga

The current job market for Black women in the US is bleak. More than 300,000 Black women have exited the workforce in just a matter of months. 518,00 Black women have not returned to the labor force since the pandemic started, meaning their real unemployment rate is over 10%, according to gender economist Katica Roy’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, published in MSNBC. These figures paint an alarming reality: Black women are being pushed out of the workforce at alarming rates. But why is this happening? And crucially, what

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Congresswoman Urges Federal Action After 300,000 Black Women Exit Workforce In Just 3 Months

Rep Ayanna Pressley

Nearly 300,000 Black women left the workforce in just three months, according to gender economist Katica Roy’s analysis of federal data published in MSNBC. Black women were the only major female demographic to see significant job losses in the five-month period between February and July, with 319,000 leaving the workforce, The New York Times reports. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is urging Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to help address these concerning statistics. Pressley’s letter On September 8th, Pressley wrote a letter to Powell, saying, “In August 2025, 6.7% of Black

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Mortgage Experts Are Using AI To Help Latinos Get On The Property Ladder

Family at home

AI is helping Latinos get on the property ladder. Latinos often face several barriers when trying to buy a home, such as meeting loan officers who don’t speak Spanish and not being able to fully understand what is being explained to them by loan officers. Federal housing agencies have started to switch to English-only services as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to make English the official language of the United States, according to The Seattle Times. The use of bilingual AI may help Latinos and other underrepresented communities during

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Black Tech Saturdays Receives $2M Grant From Knight Foundation

Black Tech Saturdays

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded $19.8 million to 12 projects across Detroit. One of the recipients of the grant is Black Tech Saturdays, as reported by the Detroit Free Press. Black Tech Saturdays allows creatives and tech enthusiasts to learn, innovate, and collaborate. The group will receive $2 million to scale Detroit’s equity-focused tech economy by connecting residents with high-growth jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. The funding will also expand digital infrastructure, support community events, amplify storytelling, and help unlock $10 million in income opportunities. The

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Tech Billionaire’s Son Behind Oscar-Winning Studio Raises $30M To Bring More Diverse Stories To The Screen

David Steward II

Lion Forge Entertainment, the Black-owned studio behind a growing slate of diverse film and TV projects, has secured a $30 million in a funding round led by HarbourView Equity Partners, as first reported by Bloomberg. The Los Angeles–based studio, founded by David Steward II, son of billionaire tech entrepreneur David Steward, will use the capital to scale up production and expand its pipeline of original content. The Steward family, with an estimated net worth of about $8.7 billion, also invested and remain majority owners. Lion Forge develops and produces live-action and

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The First-Ever Social Platform Founded And Owned By Black Women Is 100% Invite-Only

R.M Easterly

A new social media platform designed for the Black community is set to launch. Byio – short for By Invite Only- is the first-ever SaaS, AI-forward social platform founded and owned by Black women, according to a press release. Byio is designed to build community. “Unlike traditional platforms that alienate and mistreat certain demographics, Byio is everything that all the others are not and can never be, because we prioritize authentic interactions, privacy, and user control,” it says on their website. A social media platform for and by Black women

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