Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic who covers politics and national affairs. He is the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a newsletter collecting nonfiction writing.
We have documented 2 statements by Conor Friedersdorf, in 2 cases. Each statement below gives the quotation, its original source and a link to the full case.
Role at the time: Staff writer at The Atlantic, writing an opinion column
Condemned
Statement summary
Friedersdorf criticizes Flock's existing safeguards and urges local bans until stronger protections are in place. He credits its audit tool while calling for regulation to protect privacy.
“I'd argue that he overstates the strength of Flock's safeguards”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Friedersdorf questions Flock safeguards and proposes bans pending stronger protections · The AtlanticOctober 12 column; paragraphs on Audit Assistance and legal safeguards
Why we used this label
He criticizes the adequacy of current safeguards. His conditions for future use do not endorse the existing system.
Role at the time: Staff writer at The Atlantic writing an analysis article.
Condemned
Response to this claim
French’s posts demeaned the pictured people because of their race or ethnicity.
“Bo French’s xenophobia should force Republicans to confront the prejudice in their ranks.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Conor Friedersdorf condemns Bo French’s posts about Texas sports fansArticle discussing French’s posts and the criticism they generated.
Why we used this label
Friedersdorf directly condemns the conduct under scrutiny as xenophobic and appearance-based prejudice.
Bo French used an image of apparent South Asian UT fans to argue that foreigners were displacing Americans. Critics called the posts racist or xenophobic; French and supporters said they raised a legitimate immigration and admissions dispute.
Flock Safety said its August 2026 changes would shorten default data retention and strengthen controls on police searches. The ACLU said most measures remain inadequate and questioned whether Evidence Mode could preserve too much data.
