Behind the Blog: Screwed-Up Telecoms and Tech Sermons
Behind The Blog

Behind the Blog: Screwed-Up Telecoms and Tech Sermons

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss screwed-up telecom systems, tech exec sermons, and TikTok trends.
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Amazon Driver Saves Woman’s Life, Rewarded With Pizza Party and Laptop
Amazon

Amazon Driver Saves Woman’s Life, Rewarded With Pizza Party and Laptop

“It’s always ‘An Amazon Driver’ when they do something good, and ‘a third party Amazon driver’ when it’s bad.”
Pornhub's Biggest Star Is Promoting an AI Nonconsensual 'Nudify' App
News

Pornhub's Biggest Star Is Promoting an AI Nonconsensual 'Nudify' App

Sweetie Fox, Pornhub’s top adult content creator, made a sponsored video for a well-known nonconsensual “nudify” app.
Behind the Blog: Learning to Code and How the Merch Gets Made
Behind The Blog

Behind the Blog: Learning to Code and How the Merch Gets Made

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss learning to code, merch, and gaming journalism.
An Open Database Leaked Submissions to Utah’s Transphobic ‘Bathroom Bill’ Snitch Form
utah

An Open Database Leaked Submissions to Utah’s Transphobic ‘Bathroom Bill’ Snitch Form

House Bill 257, "Sex-Based Designations for Privacy, Anti-Bullying, and Women’s Opportunities," requires the state to investigate reports of people and institutions violating the "bathroom bill" law, but they left the submissions database wide open.
Google Updates Ad Policy to Ban All AI-Generated Porn
News

Google Updates Ad Policy to Ban All AI-Generated Porn

Google will now ban all ads for “synthetic sexually explicit content,” even if the ad itself is not explicit.
NYPD Produces Propaganda Instead of Legally Required Public Records
nypd

NYPD Produces Propaganda Instead of Legally Required Public Records

NYPD was able to spin out a hype video in less than 24 hours, which is notable because New York City has been horrendously slow to producing public records they are obligated by law to provide to the taxpayers who fund them. 
Pokémon Go Players Invent Fake Beaches on Real Maps to Catch Rare Wigletts
News

Pokémon Go Players Invent Fake Beaches on Real Maps to Catch Rare Wigletts

Volunteer maintainers of the widely used OpenStreetMap are battling Pokémon Go players who are vandalizing the map with fake data in order to cheat in the game.
Facebook’s AI Spam Isn’t the ‘Dead Internet’: It’s the Zombie Internet
AI

Facebook’s AI Spam Isn’t the ‘Dead Internet’: It’s the Zombie Internet

Facebook is the zombie internet, where a mix of bots, humans, and accounts that were once humans but aren’t anymore interact to form a disastrous website where there is little social connection at all.
Flood of AI-Generated Submissions ‘Final Straw’ for Small 22-Year-Old Publisher
AI

Flood of AI-Generated Submissions ‘Final Straw’ for Small 22-Year-Old Publisher

“The problem with AI is the people who use AI. They don't respect the written word,” the founder of Bards and Sages said.
Bike Lock NYPD Insists Is 'Industrial' Protest Tool Is a Normal Lock Recommended by Columbia University
columbia

Bike Lock NYPD Insists Is 'Industrial' Protest Tool Is a Normal Lock Recommended by Columbia University

Columbia University allowed police to storm campus Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner accused student protestors of using an "industrial" chain to barricade doors.
National Archives Bans Employee Use of ChatGPT
ChatGPT

National Archives Bans Employee Use of ChatGPT

The agency tasked with preserving the historical record is banning ChatGPT, citing the possibility that the tool would leak internal information.
Podcast: A Lost Media Mystery
Podcast

Podcast: A Lost Media Mystery

The source of a long mysterious 17-second snippet of music; a service that scraped and sold Discord server messages; and influencers using fake, AI-powered livestream apps.