UCC Media Justice is deeply committed to ensuring that technological systems are tools for increasing justice, fairness, accountability and equity. We have long worked alongside our civil rights allies to protest new technologies used to exclude or used unfairly.
Today, one technology is on everyone’s mind who is impacted by it: Artificial Intelligence. These powerful, often invisible technologies are making decisions about your life, your loved ones, and many of the most vulnerable in society.
Many fundamental decisions are shaped by artificial intelligence (AI). Algorithms help decide who gets a job interview, an apartment, a loan, health care, or even how you’re treated by police and the criminal justice system. These tools are often marketed as neutral and efficient.
In reality, they are built on data shaped by generations of discrimination — and without safeguards, they can quietly supercharge that discrimination at scale. That’s why UCC Media Justice has joined a broad civil-rights coalition in supporting the newly reintroduced AI Civil Rights Act in Congress.
When algorithms quietly slam the door
If you’ve applied for a job online, searched for housing, used a government website, or signed up for benefits, an algorithm may have already judged you — whether anyone told you or not.
AI systems now help:
- Sort résumés and job applications
- Decide who qualifies for mortgages or small-business loans
- Flag “risky” benefits applications or claims
- Predict where police should patrol
- Shape access to health care, insurance, and education
Because unfortunately so much of our society is the product of biased and discriminatory decisions in the past, when new AI tools are trained on existing data, they repeat that bias, resulting in:
- People of color locked out of loans or apartments at higher rates
- Women and Black and brown workers screened out by automated hiring tools
- Communities already overpoliced targeted again by “predictive” systems
The harm is often invisible. You get a polite email that says “unfortunately…” or a website that simply says “you do not qualify.” Your application for an apartment is rejected. You may never know that an AI system made the call — or that it treated your community differently from others.
Why we need the AI Civil Rights Act
Our existing civil-rights laws were written for a world where discrimination was easier to see: a landlord who says “no,” a manager who doesn’t call you back, a registrar who turns you away. In the AI era, discrimination can be:
- Silent – no notice that an algorithm was used
- At scale – one flawed system can harm thousands at once
- Hidden – companies claim their models are “proprietary” — and secret — black boxes
The AI Civil Rights Act, introduced by Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Yvette Clarke, updates our protections for this reality and has been strongly endorsed by UCC Media Justice and civil-rights groups like the ACLU and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
In plain language, the bill would:
- Ban algorithmic discrimination in high-stakes areas of life like employment, housing, education, health care, credit, policing, and access to public services.
- Require real testing and independent audits of high-impact AI systems before and after they’re deployed — not just “trust us” claims.
- Increase transparency and accountability, so people know when AI is used, have basic explanations of decisions, and have clearer paths to challenge harmful systems.
- Hold both developers and users of AI responsible for preventing discrimination, instead of letting everyone point fingers elsewhere.
The core principle is simple: if discrimination is illegal when a person does it, it should still be illegal when a company hides it inside an algorithm.
Protections are needed at every level of government
For the same reasons that UCC Media Justice supports the AI Civil Rights Act, we have also opposed federal efforts to preempt state and local laws that provide more justice and accountability for AI technologies. Preemption is particularly problematic when we lack these protections at the federal level now.
Why UCC Media Justice is speaking out
UCC Media Justice has always believed that communications technology should serve the public good — not just corporate profit or political power. We’ve seen how unchecked systems, from prison phone monopolies to social-media platforms, can magnify injustice. We’ve also seen how good rules and public pressure can make those systems fairer.
For Christians, this is not just a tech policy issue. It’s about the conviction that every person bears the image of God and deserves fair treatment. When automated tools quietly label some people as “too risky” or “less deserving” because of the community they come from, that is a spiritual problem as well as a legal one.
The AI Civil Rights Act grows out of that same hope: that technology can be a blessing, but only if it comes with strong guardrails. Please add your name to our petition, along with allies, calling on Congress to oppose dangerous giveaways to the Big Tech companies controlling AI technology.