There Are No Girls on the Internet

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Latest Episodes:

Shein’s disastrous brand trip, the future of influencing, and the ethics of fast fashion (w/ Aja Barber!) Jul 04, 2023

Show notes

Fast fashion retailer Shein’s brand trip didn’t quite go as they planned. They sent a group of influencers to China to tour their facility after a bunch of bad press, but now those influencers are facing backlash themselves, and renouncing their partnership with Shein. The whole thing raises questions about the ethics and harm of fast fashion, as well as the influencers who shill for it.

Aja Barber wrote the book on consumption. She explains why it’s about more than just Shein.

Aja is the most stylish person I know! Follow her on Patreon for sustainable style insights: https://www.patreon.com/AjaBarber

Check out Aja’s book Consumed: https://www.ajabarber.com/book

Wanna support the There Are No Girls On The Internet? Check us out on Patreon at Patreon.com/tangoti

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Dylan Mulvaney breaks returns to social media; debunking affirmative action myths; Canva’s Black hair backlash; Is ChatGPT stealing your data?; Google blocks Canadian news sites — NEWS ROUNDUP Jul 01, 2023

Show notes

SCOTUS’ affirmative action ruling leaves us mad as hell; Dylan Mulvaney, the trans influencer targeted for extremist hate in the wake of a Bud Light brand partnership, returns to social media; Canva’s AI text to image tool labels Bantu knots “unsafe;” A new lawsuits says Open AI’s ChatGPT is taking all of our data; Google and Facebook threaten to go dark on Canadian news.

Facebook’s bans news in Australia is silencing activists: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/disinformed-facebooks-bans-news-in-australia-is-silencing/id1520715907?i=1000510047480

Google says it will start blocking Canadian news stories in response to new: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1185087587/google-says-it-will-start-blocking-canadian-news-stories-in-response-to-new-law

We had a little bit more to say in this episode, so to hear the rest of the newscast, subscribe to our Patreon: Patreon.com/tangoti

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Is the internet making us all lonelier? (w/ Tinder Live's Lane Moore!) Jun 28, 2023

Show notes

There’s no denying that dating apps, social media, and smartphones have changed the way platonic, romantic, and sexual relationships play out in all of our lives. But it’s more than just that! Making meaningful friend relationships can be tough because of *everything* we’re all dealing with.

Comedian and author Lane Moore explores how we all make friendships now and her new book You Will Find Your People.

CHECK OUT LANE’S NEW BOOK: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/you-will-find-your-people_9781419762567/

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Elon Musk declares 'cis' a slur; Poll workers targeted by Trump+Giuliani exonerated; RFK Jr. and Joe Rogan say stupid things; Illinois bans book bans; Grammys are for humans; Zuckerburg vs. Musk cage match - NEWS ROUNDUP Jun 23, 2023

Show notes

There’s a heavy musk of Elon in this episode. He tries to redefine the word ‘cis’ to be a slur and says it will be considered harassment on his janky platform that encourages deadnaming; he inspires the CEO of Reddit to follow his lead and alienate his own users by charging for API access; and he challenges Mark Zuckerburg to an ill-advised cage match that seems like it might actually happen. RFK Jr. went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to rehash some tired old medical misinformation from 2020, then Rogan’s listeners got big mad when an actual scientist wasn’t interested in debating their nonsense. But it’s not all gloom and doom! In happier news, the two Georgia poll workers whose lives were upended by Trump and Giuliani’s baseless lies about them were finally officially exonerated. Illinois gets behind the librarians to ban book bans, and the Recording Academy takes a stand by insisting that only humans can win Grammys - not AI.

Did you follow the Oceangate tragedy? Listen to an ad free bonus episode breaking down online discourse, conspiracy theories and right wing grievance mongering around Oceangate: https://www.patreon.com/posts/oceangate-85029090

Listen to Bridget’s episode about Ruby and Shay Freeman on Internet Hate Machine: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/part-one-why-trump-targeted-two-black-election-workers/id1648497305?i=1000590820764

Erin Reed’s piece on the history of the word cis https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/cisgender-is-no-more-a-slur-than

Anna Merlan’s Vice piece on RFK on Rogan: https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7zz9z/spotify-rogan-rfk-vaccine-misinformation-policy

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Shiny Happy People: It's not just the Duggars, religious zealots want to control your future (w/ Eve Ettinger) Jun 21, 2023

Show notes

On Amazon Prime's new docu series Shiny Happy People, we're given a look into the Duggars' harmful religious ideology. Eve Ettinger shares their story in the film. Eve joins to talk about their work with the Coalition for Responsible Home Education to help advocate for homeschooled kids.

Listen to Eve's podcast Kitchen Table Cult: https://kitchentablecult.com/

and subscribe to their Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kitchentablecultpod

SUPPORT Coalition for Responsible Home Education: https://responsiblehomeschooling.org/support-crhe/

Eve's Salon piece:

Shiny happy homeschooling: The abusive Duggar-like household is preventable, if we all take action: https://www.salon.com/2023/06/10/duggar-homeschooling-danger-reform-shiny-happy-people/

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ChatGPT gets sued; Google's anti-choice cash in; GLAAD grades Twitter; Teslas go full self-rampaging; Women be Gaming — NEWS ROUNDUP Jun 17, 2023

Show notes

A besmirched radio host sues OpenAI over ChatGPT hallucinations of impropriety. Google rakes in ad cash from anti-choice "pregnancy crisis centers" designed to trick pregnant people. GLAAD releases its third annual Social Media Safety Index on platform safety for LGBTQ individuals (spoiler: Twitter is going backwards). More Teslas are crashing than previously realized. Majorities of GenXers and Millenials would like to travel back in time before social media existed.

Read the GLAAD report, it's accessible and interesting: https://assets.glaad.org/m/7adb1180448da194/original/Social-Media-Safety-Index-2023.pdf

More than half of Nintendo Switch owners are female: https://mynintendonews.com/2023/06/10/us-47-of-console-gamers-are-female-and-52-own-nintendo-switch/

Read about the lawsuit against OpenAI. Make sure to follow the link in the article to read the complaint itself, it's worth it: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/9/23755057/openai-chatgpt-false-information-defamation-lawsuit

Report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate on Google's profiteering from deceptive anti-choice "pregnancy crisis centers": https://counterhate.com/research/google-profiting-from-fake-abortion-clinics-ads/

Remember to look both ways before crossing the street, there could be a Tesla coming: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/10/tesla-autopilot-crashes-elon-musk/

GenXers and older millenials are over it with social media: https://www.fastcompany.com/90909279/gen-xers-and-older-millennials-really-just-want-to-go-back-in-time-to-before-the-internet-existed

Get more bonus content ad-free and join the TANGOTI Discord chat at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tangoti

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Real Life Beef: Bridget vs Essence Magazine - Listeners demand the truth about that weird 'Vila Davis' postazine Jun 14, 2023

Show notes

A few weeks ago in our news roundup we talked about a weird social post from Essence magazine on Viola Davis's incredible outfit at the Cannes Film Festival. Not only was her name spelled wrong, but the language just felt off, and Bridget speculated that it seemed like it was written by AI. Fast forward a few weeks, and Essence reached out to Bridget about it on Instagram! But their response was confusing, at first they admitted to being "busted" and it seemed all in good fun, UNTIL they accused her of spreading misinformation. So was it written by AI or not? Bridget explains the reasons she still thinks it was, what this says about the future role of AI in media, and why AAVE (African American Vernacular English) might be the Achilles heel of generative language models.

See a screenshot of the original post through this public Patreon link (and while you're there, sign up for more bonus ad-free content): https://www.patreon.com/posts/84517863

Check out Bridget's critically acclaimed podcast "Beef", all about epic competitions: https://ncpodcasts.com/beef

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Park Mom Birthday Cake Drama, DeSantis Campaign Deep Fakes, Amazon’s Spy Ring, YouTube Disinfo Is Back, Facebook Still Awful, New Twitter CEO — NEWS ROUNDUP Jun 09, 2023

Show notes

This week we learned Amazon employees spied on Ring customers, YouTube is rolling back its policy about election disinfo, and Instagram is even worse than we thought (which was already very bad). In less terrible news, Twitter has a new CEO, and some low stakes drama between two Birthday Moms in the park reminds us why the Internet is great.

Good news! Biden names a point person to counter extremists trying to ban LGBTQ books: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180941627/biden-pride-month-book-bans

Bad News! Instagram Algorithms Boost and Connect Vast Network of Pedophiles: https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/instagram-pedophile-network-child-pornography-researchers-1235635743/

Scary news! DeSantis campaign uses AI-generated deep fake images of Trump and Fauci: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/desantis-ad-uses-fake-ai-images-of-trump-hugging-and-kissing-fauci-experts-say/

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/

The opposite of ‘Enshittification’ is ‘Embiggification’: https://youtu.be/FcxsgZxqnEg

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino Is Teetering on the Glass Cliff: https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-linda-yaccarino-glass-cliff/

Get more bonus content ad-free and join the TANGOTI Discord chat at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tangoti

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Sex workers know the future of the internet w/ Dr. Olivia Snow Jun 07, 2023

Show notes

When it comes to what’s next in technology and the internet, we’d all benefit from listening to sex workers. Dr. Olivia Snow, dominatrix and researcher at UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, explains why people who engage in sex work have been right about the internet all along.

‘Magic Avatar’ App Lensa Generated Nudes From My Childhood Photos: https://www.wired.com/story/lensa-artificial-intelligence-csem/

Are You Ready to Be Surveilled Like a Sex Worker? https://www.wired.com/story/roe-abortion-sex-worker-policy/

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Elon Musk flirts with AOC impersonator, Surgeon General's Report on social media, AI-generated true crime on TikTok, and more! — NEWS ROUNDUP Jun 02, 2023

Show notes

This week, Elon Musk interacted with a fake Twitter account impersonating AOC, which had been banned until he decided to unban it, presumably so he could flirt with it. In less cringy news, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a landmark report calling for urgent action to protect young people from the harms of social media. TikTok is awash in creepy AI-generated true crime content being narrated by fictional murdered children, the National Eating Disorder Association learns that replacing humans with AI chatbots can lead to dangerous outcomes, NYC takes a tentative step to require transparency in AI-assisted hiring decisions, and Apple announces a suite of new accessibility features.

Amanda Knox talks true crime on There Are No Girls on the Internet: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/amanda-knox-asks-who-gets-to-own-their-story/id1520715907?i=1000552625297

Internet Hate Machine episode of the importance and history of verification on Twitter: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-elon-musk-could-learn-from-the-endfathersday-hoax/id1648497305?i=1000585587576

NPR piece about the National Eating Disorder Association’s union-busting chatbot: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/31/1179244569/national-eating-disorders-association-phases-out-human-helpline-pivots-to-chatbo

Get more bonus content ad-free and join the TANGOTI Discord chat at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tangoti

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