Those horrifying deep fake AI images of Taylor Swift that circulated on social media last week are a threat to all of us. It’s time for real cultural and legislative change. Check out Dr. Joy Buolamwini’s Algorithmic Justice League: https://www.ajl.org/ Listen to Dr. Joy Buolamwini’s episode: https://omny.fm/shows/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet/biden-s-executive-order-on-ai-protects-privacy-and 404 Media’s reporting on...

Kelly Osbourne addresses infamous 2015 remarks about Latinos on 'The View': https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/kelly-osbourne-addresses-infamous-2015-remarks-latinos-view-rcna134755 Researchers Say the Deepfake Biden Robocall Was Likely Made With Tools From AI Startup ElevenLabs: https://www.wired.com/story/biden-robocall-deepfake-elevenlabs/ AI-Generated Taylor Swift Porn Went Viral on Twitter. Here's How It Got There:...

In our last news roundup, Bridget and Mike had conflicting and surprisingly strong feelings about self checkout machines. And it turns out, listeners do, too! We got more emails about this seemingly low stakes topic than any other. Why did this touch a nerve?! We don’t know but there’s something there, and we’re here for it. We read some listener emails, which make great points for and against. Are these machines dystopian symbols of our crumbling social connectedness? Or are they convenient...

This week on the Patreon: Bridget remembers the time she met Sheryl Sandberg. https://TANGOTI.com/patreon  Google promised to delete sensitive location data about abortion clinic visits. A new study finds that it still isn’t living up to that promise: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/16/google-keeps-location-history-data-abortion-clinics-despite-delete-pledge  Teen deepfake victim pushes for federal law targeting non-consensual, AI-generated explicit content - the Preventing...

It’s a new year, which is a great opportunity to take stock of what we’re leaving behind in tech in the new year.  Bridget joined Sam and Anney over at Stuff Mom Never Told You to get into what’s not coming with us in 2024. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy 2024 - the internet is all scams, lies, baits, Nazis and spiders!  Substack has a Nazi problem: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/11/substack-platformer-nazis/ Dating apps are in their flop era: https://www.bustle.com/wellness/dating-apps-have-gotten-worse-hinge-tinder-bumble-gen-z-millennials  On Threads, users say they're flooded with pro-life and transphobic posts: https://mashable.com/article/threads-transphobia-anti-abortion-posts-hate-speech EBay to pay $3...

Harvard donor Bill Ackman pushed for the resignation of Harvard's first Black woman president, Dr. Claudine Gay, for what he says is a history of academic plagiarism. An independent review panel cleared her of misconduct, but the allegations continued and led to her resignation. Now Ackman’s wife, Dr. Neri Oxman, is also being accused of plagiarism in her academic work.    In the aftermath of Dr. Gay’s resignation from Harvard, here’s how Ackman has responded to the allegations against his...

Happy New Year! We’d intended to air the first newscast of 2024, but instead we have to talk about what happened to Dr. Claudine Gay, the former president of Harvard. She resigned last week after an intense campaign to get her fired led by right wing activist Christopher Rufo. Yup, the same right wing activist who created the moral panic over Critical Race Theory. He’s been completely transparent, through public tweets and interviews in big outlets like Politico, that his goal in creating the...

Have you been seeing a lot of content on social media romanticizing women not working outside of the home?  Jo Piazza, host of the hilarious and insightful podcast Under the Influence, breaks down why we're seeing so much trad wife content right now.   #TradWives: sexism as gateway to white supremacy: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/countering-radical-right/tradwives-sexism-gateway-white-supremacy/ Listen to Under the Influence:...

Netflix’s Inventing Anna presents a flashy version of fake German heiress Anna Delvey’s scams. Rachel Deloache Williams was scammed out of $62,000 by Anna on a disastrous trip to Morocco.  Rachel discusses true crime shows like Inventing Anna and Hulu’s The Dropout and what it means for all of us when liars and scammers are elevated and amplified.   Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin Almost Ruined My Life. Now She’s Being Rewarded for Her Crimes:...

Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to pay Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, two election workers he baselessly maligned in Georgia, almost 50 million dollars. And they might even sue him again! Here’s how we got here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're taking a break from our usual content to share a new podcast from iHeart's Outspoken network, Afterlives: The Layleen Polanco Story. You can check out the rest of the show here: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-afterlives-the-layleen-po-127683074/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cait Corrain is an author who had a highly anticipated book called Crown of Starlight coming out in May of 2024. But now her book has been shelved after she admitted to using Good Reads to review bomb a bunch of other writers’ forthcoming books. Most of her targets were Black or queer, while Corrain is white. This story has a LOT of twists and turns, including her inventing an obviously fake conversation with an obviously fake person. Canadian author Xiran Jay Zhao was the first person I saw...

It’s a Friday news roundup! If you’re new here and looking for a deeper dive into a single topic, check out the episode on Alex Jones from Dec 12, or the (forthcoming) episode on Tuesday Dec 19 about the wild story of an author who created fake Goodreads accounts to review-bomb a bunch of other authors. It’s part scam, part Greek tragedy, and you’ll definitely want to hear it.  Want to skip the banter and get right to the news? Head to around the 6 minute mark GLAAD’s report on transphobia...

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been let back on Twitter after being banned for building a media empire on the lie that the Sandy Hook school shooting wasn't real. When Elon first took over Twitter he said he would never let Jones back on, but that promise turned out to be worth as much as most of Elon’s promises. This week he rolled out the red carpet and sat down for a chit chat in Twitter spaces to talk about how much they both love free speech and hate grieving parents.  In honor of...

To skip the banter and get straight to the news, skip to 00:04:20 VOTE FOR THE IRL PODCAST TO WIN AN ANTHEM AWARD: TANGOTI.COM/IRL  During this week’s GOP debate, Nikki Haley dropped a curious stat about TikTok making users 17% more antisemitic every 30 minutes, but is that even true? Here’s the original analysis by Goldbloom but (A) Haley misstated the findings, and (B) this study wasn’t peer reviewed or published, so buyer beware: ...

The tech conference Devternity has been canceled (not fake canceled, literally canceled) after allegations that the founder has been inventing fake women and catfishing on Instagram for years.  Bridget does a deep dive to get to the bottom of it, and what it says about default, dismissive attitudes about marginalized people in tech. There were real women the whole time! Why not invite one of them?! A Tech Conference Listed Fake Speakers for Years: I Accidentally Noticed:...

We’re soft-launching having a little banter at the top of the episode, but to get straight to the news go to the 4:25 mark!  Wanna listen to Bridget dig into her Spotify Wrapped?5:20  Check out the Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/tangoti NameDrop is safe. The fearmongering about it is not: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/27/namedrop-iphone-ios17-safety/ Your Step-by-Step Guide to Disabling NameDrop (if you want to): ...

Last week, Sam Altman was abruptly fired from Open AI. Don’t worry, he’s already been reinstated.  Dr. Misty Heggeness, Associate Professor in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas, talks with Bridget about what all the drama around his departure and return says about male leaders in tech and beyond.  Read Misty’s op-ed: How the OpenAI saga illustrates tech’s toxic masculinity problem:...

After being falsely accused of murder in a global scandal screamed from tabloid headlines, these days exoneree, activist, mom, and host of the podcast Labyrinths Amanda Knox spends her time imagining a healthier media landscape. Check out the work Amanda does alongside her husband Chris: https://www.knoxrobinson.com Read Amanda's Medium piece, Who Owns My Name: https://amandamarieknox.medium.com/who-owns-my-name-93561f83e502 Amanda and Chris' podcast Labyrinths is very good, but this...

There’s a lot going on with Twitter! It’s been a few weeks since we’ve done an installment of our segment, “What’s Elon Done Now?” because we were sick of talking about him. But some big things happened this week, so Bridget sits down with Producer Mike to recap and talk about what it all means.  From Elon boosting antisemitic tweets and calling it “actual truth” to Media Matters releasing a damning report about hate speech on the platform and major advertisers pulling the plug, it’s been an...

Learn more about Joey’s new podcast with Raquel Willis Afterlives: https://www.them.us/story/afterlives-layleen-polanco-trans-incarceration-podcast?utm_source=twitter&utm_brand=them&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social Dear Video Game Industry, Please Name A Woman: https://kotaku.com/pc-gamer-30th-anniversary-women-games-1851021562 FCC moves to help domestic violence victims with new rules around...

Is it just me or are ads everywhere on TikTok right now? Welcome to TikTok Shop. Is this the new normal? TikTok creator PrettyCritical joins Bridget to discuss. Follow Pretty Critical: https://www.tiktok.com/@prettycritical?lang=en Teens are trying to cash in on the TikTok Shop gold rush between classes: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/tiktok-shop-teens-high-school-open-how-to-make-money-long-deliver-us-rcna102788 The Junk Is Winning TikTok’s experiment in shopping has quickly...

“We got the yacht!”  https://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-new-york-city/season-8/episode-17/videos/sonja-we-got-the-yacht Actors strike wins concessions that will impact AI and streaming for decades: https://www.wired.com/story/hollywood-actors-strike-ends-ai-streaming/ Zuckerberg personally and repeatedly blocked efforts to make Meta's products less harmful: https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/08/tech/meta-facebook-instagram-teen-safety/index.html How to be a whistleblower with Sophie...

In the wake of Britney Spears’ hit memoir, are social media bots changing the conversation? Bridget does a deep dive into how social media bots are changing the landscape of social media discourse. From celebrity disputes to television reviews and political discourse, the threat of bots and inauthentic accounts are shaping how we think and how we talk to each other, whether they’re real or not.  Massive Twitter Bot Farm Is Heaping Praise on Trump and Trashing DeSantis”...