PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2017-12-13 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Did DNA Testing Companies Admit to Altering Tests to 'Screw with Racists'? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • In early December 2017, a number of less than reputable web sites published claims that DNA testing companies such as Ancestry.com and 23AndMe regularly fabricated African ancestry in results for the sole purpose of screw[ing] with racist customers: The specific claim originated on the web site Squawker, in a 6 December 2017 piece: It cited a 4 December 2017 Cracked.com piece, that relied on a single anonymous source for its most egregious claims, and ignored information from the Cracked piece that didn't line up with its claims. According to Squawker, DNA testing companies admitted to the practice—plural—but Cracked.com only spoke with one purported employee. To boot, the claims made by the anonymous source were misrepresented. The source first discussed the unnamed company's tweak[ing] of results on rare occasions, typically to make up for mathematical shortfalls or in cases where a customer might be deeply disappointed by the absence of a particular heritage, per Cracked: After asserting that it was really easy to sabotage one's own result, the purported worker went on to mention two instances where a white customer indicated a strong disinclination to demonstrate black ancestry, per Cracked. Squawker used this detail from Cracked's reporting to make an unsupported claim about a specific incident wherein a white supremacist discovered he had 14 percent black ancestry, inferring that it is potentially DNA test tampering. Neither of the cases discussed in the Cracked story involved anywhere near the 14 percent black ancestry result that was used as an example by Squawker, but rather less than one percent: DNA testing sites have been fielding questions from the public, and a 23andMe representative has responded on Facebook about the rumors: We contacted Ancestry.com and 23AndMe for further information. A representative for Ancestry.com responded: The 23AndMe representative explained: Although headlines suggested DNA testing companies admitted they routinely tampered with customers' results and articles hinted that that fudging exceeded 10 percent, the claim was based on a humor web site's interview with an anonymous purported employee. Not only were the claims unvetted, but they are only alleged to have affected a sum total of two customers. The items referenced 23AndMe specifically, but the source material only claimed the person worked for one of the major ancestry testing companies. Both Ancestry.com and 23AndMe firmly denied any such action occurred at their respective testing facilities. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url