There Are No Girls on the Internet - Grammarly Stole Writers' Identities; Heated Rivalry Fanfic; Uber's Women-Only Rides; & Is Instagram Dying? – NEWS ROUNDUP

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

In this week's News Roundup, Bridget and Producer Joey cover the tech news stories you might have missed. Do Normies Have The Right to Read Heated Rivalry Fanfic: https://www.gq.com/story/heated-rivalry-fanfic-privacy A writer is suing Grammarly for turning her and other authors into ‘AI editors’ without consent: https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/12/a-writer-is-suing-grammarly-for-turning-her-and-other-authors-into-ai-editors-without-consent/ He Tried to Stop Adobe From Training its AI on His Photo Library – He Lost: https://petapixel.com/2026/03/11/he-tried-to-stop-adobe-from-training-its-ai-on-his-photo-library-he-lost/ Viral 'Quittr' Porn Addiction App Exposed the Masturbation Habits of Hundreds of Thousands of Users: https://www.404media.co/viral-quittr-porn-addiction-app-exposed-the-masturbation-habits-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-users/ Panic World’s episode on the NoFap movement: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6qXJNaFl2dIzwXC9h8no4p Uber’s women-only option goes nationwide in the US: https://apnews.com/article/uber-women-safety-9c974f92dfd7fb25d504d173b2429d06 Listen to Alison Turkos on TANGOTI: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/she-was-sexually-assaulted-during-a-lyft-ride-now/id1520715907?i=1000555658403 Buffer Report: Declines in Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads Engagement: https://www.globaldatinginsights.com/featured/buffer-report-declines-in-instagram-linkedin-threads-engagement/ Let us know what you think about these stories by emailing [e-mail] or leaving a comment on Spotify! Pre-order our forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com ! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media!  ||  instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc || youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet || bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.socialSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Your 20s can be so exciting, but they can also be really overwhelming, confusing, and honestly, just kind of lonely. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the psychology of your 20s is breaking down the science behind the biggest roadblocks we face. I was six years into my career, the 80-hour weeks and just the first one in, the last one out, and I ended up burning out.

There was a large chunk of my 20s that I was just so wanting to be out of that phase out of my skin and I just like really regret not living in the present more. You don't need to have everything figured out right now. You just need to understand yourself a little bit better. Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Saigon, the story of my family and of the country that shaped us. From IHeart Podcasts, Saigon. You don't think I'm serious about a free Vietnam? One city, a divided country, and the war that tore America apart. This is for Vietnam. They're pouring patrol all over here. Freedom for Vietnam! There's a fire coming to this country and it's going to burn out everything.

Listen to Saigon. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There Are No Girls on the Internet is a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. Welcome to There Are No Girls on the Internet, where we explore the intersection of technology, identity, and social media. And this is another installment of our weekly news roundup where we dig into all the stories that you might have missed on the Internet this week so you don't have to. And if you're hearing a little extra twang or drawl in my voice, voice. It is because I'm coming to you from Austin, Texas, where I'm here for South by Southwest,

where I just finished a talk on why audiences do not like AI in their media. Y'all, I'm kind of geeked right now because after I finished that talk, I rushed over to see Steven Spielberg do a whole talk about aliens on the Big Picture podcast with Sean Fennacy. I am basically in Nerd Heaven. It was awesome. But what is also awesome is having Joey back on the podcast. Joey, It is so nice to have you back on the show. After, believe it or not, we've been making this podcast together for years. We finally met in person for the first time at the on-air festival in New York City, which was delightful. We did, yes.

Yeah, so excited to be back on the show. And it was so nice to finally meet you in person. On Air Festival was great. Shout out to everybody that organized that. I'm wearing my hat that I got from it right now. It says ESPN podcasts, which has been great because. I'm trying to do this bit right now where I pretend to know things about sports when I don't, which I think leads really well to our first story.

Yes, that's a great segue. So I have to give a big caveat that I've only actually seen one episode of heated rivalry because I've just been very busy. But the online discourse around it has been supercharged. In a GQ piece called Do Normies Have the Right to Read Heated Rivalry Fan Fict by Catherine D? it breaks down how expectations around online fandom has created a lot of tensions in the heated rivalry online discourse.

A discourse, Joey, that I know that you're pretty tapped into. Absolutely, absolutely. I'm so glad you brought this to my attention, Bridget. Caviat like you, I have the opposite. I've watched all of heated rivalry except for the last episode, which many of my friends are giving me shit about. To be fair, I keep doing this with TV shows. I don't know why.

Bridget, I know you also do this and you have a better reason than me, but I will watch shows and then not watch the last episode. I do the exact same thing. When I really love a show or it's meaningful to me, I won't watch the last episode

because I can't bear the idea of there being no more of it to watch. And I like the feeling of saying, oh, I can still watch one more. So I haven't watched the last episode of Hacks because I loved it so much. I haven't even ever watched the last episode of 30 Rock,

which was like 10 years ago. Yeah, I was saying, Hacks at least there's like a new season coming out. So there's like a deadline for that. But for me, it's more that I think I just have commitment issues. But yeah, anyways, I love the show. Bridget, you know my favorite thing to talk about is fan fiction. So I'm so ready for this.

I think specifically I do want to bring up at the top because the thing that I think is interesting about heated rivalry and talking about heated rivalry and fan fiction specifically is that it started as a fan fiction. I'm not into, I know there's like two stories. One of them is like actually, I think about like hockey players or something. I, again, don't know shit about sports. So whatever.

I think, like, Ilya and Shane is, like, actually based on hockey players. But, like, the whole Scott and Kip storyline, that is based on Captain America fan fiction, which was really big for me as somebody who spent a lot of their formative years reading Captain America fan fiction. So when it comes to Heated Rivalry,

here's what's going down. So there was a recent New York Mad cover story about Heated Rivalry and Fujoshi, which is a Japanese word for women who enjoy romantic and sexual stories about men. And this sparked a lot of online conversation. The author, E. Alex Jung, had included direct links to fan fiction about heated rivalry, posted to AO3, or archive of our own, which is like a fan fiction platform. Many people felt like this was a problem, since it was essentially sending a large mainstream audience

to this community-specific, mostly under Sudenem's writing platform never meant for them. And so while it's true, A03 is not a private space, people who show up there kind of treat it as if it's a semi-private online community with some expectation of it being only for, quote, insiders in the know and not necessarily for what you might consider to be like a normy audience. As Catherine D puts it in her piece for GQ, the debate touches on something fundamental about the experience of online space,

and it has further reaching implications that it might seem. The Internet has a geography. It is a place more than it is a communication tool. It has cities and towns and houses and rooms and rooms within rooms. Each region of the Internet has its own culture and dialect and etiquette. The Internet also has places that are public in the technical sense, but private in the social one. Yes, A-O-3 is a website that anyone can visit, browse, sign up, and make an account on. But many fans perceive it less like a public square,

and more like a communal living room. Yeah, I have conflicting thoughts on this one. Because, so I read the original piece that came out that was in New York Magazine. Shout out to the many, many people that set me that over Instagram. I'm glad that I have a brand apparently. But like, I read the article and I honestly, I was like, oh, this is cool. This is like a guy. I was like, this is an area of like internet culture that I'm really interested in.

I've been a part of. I thought it was a good kind of take on that. I understand the frustration specifically with the fact that he linked to these fan fictions and I understand why people maybe weren't super happy with that. I think we're going to get a little bit more into this, but I think like there's like this assumed,

maybe not like this isn't, maybe not assuming that it's private, but assuming like it's going to stay in this corner of the internet and it's like not really going to breach containment. And I think like I understand that like when it does breach containment, that's annoying and upsetting. But also like because of how AO3 works, like you said, it's like a lot of people use pseudonyms.

A lot of people like there's ways to make it more private. There's ways to keep your actual identity off of it. So that to me is more like, all right, in my book, it's like you wrote this thing, you put it on the internet. You kind of lose control of what happens to it. Well, she reveals that exact tension in the piece where, on the one hand, this is in no way an underground community. It might feel niche, but, you know, it's really not,

fan fiction is not niche like it used to be, you know, there was a time. I'm old enough to remember the time where if you were engaging in like niche fandom communities online, they were public, but they felt so small and off the radar that it was unlikely that a journalist would wander in there and start writing about it. But here in 2026, that's not really the case anymore. Yeah, I mean, even like thinking about like when I was a teenager like 10 years ago, like in these spaces and writing fan fiction and like reading a lot of this stuff. Not that I don't also do that now, but whatever. Anyways, it was like it was a very different environment.

I like talked about on this podcast. Like I was really on Tumblr. Like that was like my main platform when I was a teenager. I think like it's really interesting with like fandom stuff seeing it kind of move to TikTok and the way that TikTok is so much more like public. like your face is literally attached to it versus I'm like, I don't like any of the fandom stuff that I did back when I was 16, there's no way to connect it back to me. My face was not on it. My name was not on it. It was on some, I don't even remember which Tumblr. I had so many different usernames at that point. I'm like, I don't even remember which one it like it would have been on.

And the GQ piece really plays at the tension that you were sort of getting at of what is it, what are the implications of when this thing that feels private but actually isn't private is like talked about and amplified in these ways, you know, on the one hand, this is in no way an underground community. That's just the bottom line. But it is also reasonable to not want what feels like your private little corner of the web or you can be like your freaky little weirdo self, which we love, being turned into a public spectacle and like blown up. And so the piece returns to this analogy of being filmed in public. Nobody wants to be filmed in public, but when you go out in public on a public street, you actually have no expectation of privacy. So it's perfectly legal to film people

in public, even though nobody likes that. And so that analogy really made a lot of sense to me. And I just think it's interesting from the perspective of a journalist, like, I bumped up against this when I was writing my audiobook, Love at First Prompt, because I was essentially lurking in what felt like semi-private spaces, subreddits like my boyfriend is AI where people go to talk about their intimate connections with AI. These conversations are obviously sensitive and intimate and like delicate. These are people who are talking about things that have that have garnered a lot of scrutiny because of the things that they're talking about. And so it does feel weird to be silently lurking in these communities publishing anonymously what some of these people are

saying so that I can create commentary around it, but then wondering about the ethics of that. And the ethics are clear, right? Like, if you write something on Reddit and a public subreddit, that's on the internet for everybody to see whoever wants to respond to that, blow that up, amplify that, they can. But I understand the sort of like tension that she's getting at because it does raise, I wrestled with how to handle that when I was putting together the book. And she really nails that tension in the GQP. She writes,

The impulse to gatekeep A.03 to insist that journalists should honor community norms that they never agreed to is understandable. But it runs up against a hard reality. You can lock your A.O3 account or post to invite only spaces. But what people actually want is harder to guarantee. They want to publish openly, but to only be read by the right people. That is something both the Internet and our broader culture used to provide, briefly and accidentally, and most likely never will again. Obscurity work when fandom was small,

but it no longer is, and no amount of gatekeeping will ever bring the halcyon days of the early 2000s back. Yeah, I... We really need to do a full episode about A.O3 at some point because I have so much to say to this,

but I... Yeah, I think she put it really well. Like I said, I understand that impulse to gatekeep. Again, as somebody who's... Like, I've written some really bad fanficing out there, again, totally anonymous, which is why I'm, like, not embarrassed by that fact, because I was like, yeah, I made this when I was, like, 16 and it was fun.

Like, I think that's actually a good thing to do. I don't know. But, yeah, I think it is like, we're at a such a weird time with, like, fandom culture, where I think, like, like, she said, like, fandom isn't small anymore. It's become so much more mainstream. Like trying to look at it from the perspective of like, why people want to keep this contained, keep this anonymous. I get that. It's annoying to have people like coming into your weird nerdy space that you just like don't want to whatever. I get that. I'm the same way. I also think like she said, you can lock your account. You can make it.

You only have you have to have an A.O3 account to read people's fan fictions. Most people don't have their name on it. And that to me, that to me, I think it's like more of an issue of like this. This is why it's important to protect online spaces where you can be anonymous because that's such a great, like, creative tool for people. Because, like, at the end of the day, and this is where I have, like, a more positive take on this where I'm like, I actually think it is good that people are talking about this more. A03, like, when you think about it, you think about the platforms where you can, like, create things and make media. Fanfiction is, like, one of the few kind of forms of media right now. You just, like, cannot monetize at all. Like, unless you turn it into an original story later on, the most writers aren't going into fan fiction being, like,

like, I'm going to make money off of it. Like, they're doing it for the love of the game. And that to me is like, we get so little, like, there's so few examples of that right now that, like, I always say like, AO3 is genuinely like one of the sites online right now. Like, is like one of the few websites right now that, like, gives me hope for like the future of the internet and people being able to, like, create things on the internet. Because of that, because it's like, you can't monetize it.

There is no algorithm. You literally are just like posting to it. This is, yeah, just people doing it. for the love of the game. And to me, like, I think that's, like, a really important part of, like, creating art.

I, uh, yeah, like, I, like, I was very, like, yeah, I was ashamed of the fact that I, like, wrote fan fiction growing up.

I didn't talk to anybody about it, but also, like, that was one of the earliest ways I was able to, like, engaged in, non, uh, engaged in,

like, creative writing in a way that was, like, felt accessible at the time. We just seen people creating more art. And like, I think if you want to create art, you should do it. And like, I guess, like, my main takeaway is I get the anxiety around these articles. I get the impulse to want to gatekeep. I also think, like, there's no harm in just, like, creating things. And part

of me is like, you know what? Yeah, if we're, like, becoming more open about that, if we're saying, like, fuck cringe, embrace the cringe, read, write as much fan fiction as you want. And, Like, that doesn't seem like a bad thing to me. You heard it here first, folks. Embrace the cringe. You never know how far it will take you. You never know. Literally, I mean, I'll be real.

It has genuinely, like, giving me a lot of, like, I think it's really beautiful that this was a series. Like, yeah, started as a, just somebody writing this for fun, which is what a lot of art starts as and then it turns into this thing that resonates with a lot of people. Best case scenario, you make the biggest TV show, of the year. Worst case scenario, you made a fun

piece of art and had fun. Let's take a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guide, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an Acapella band with their between songs banter. There's that more singer in the group. The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard,

you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group. The yard herds, right? That's the name. The Harvard yard, but they're open. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle-aged, one erection.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get. your podcast. Hum me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, Iheart's twice as large as the next two combined.

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And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast's Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs.

I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night bases on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too.

Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball, like, After you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on Crimless, we're joined by our first ever guest.

Sorry, our first ever human guest. I don't think I could be in the same room with Shamrock the parrot. I'd be too nervous. That's right. The very funny Will Ferrell joins Rory Scoble and me, Josh Dean, for an episode dedicated to the many crimes committed by people also named Will Ferrell. They called to his fellow officer for the nippers. What are the nippers?

Very good question. No, I was thinking, would that be a good name for like a salad dressing? Simple assault. And it's a play on word, salt? Maybe not. I say we invest and we see. There's only one way to know. This did not amuse the cops.

By the way, normally the cops are amused, but this did not abuse the cops. Will even comes clean about some of his own crimes. I didn't get caught. You know why? If you don't want to be suspected of anything, you whistle as you walk. Listen to Crimes List on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans,

a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. At our back. Okay. So speaking of writing, y'all have probably all heard this by now, but I could not stop thinking about the grammarly thing.

It is, I just can't stop thinking about it. So if we don't know what's going on, Grammarly, the AI writing tool, had this feature that used AI to simulate editorial feedback. So it would make it seem like you're getting editorial feedback or an editorial critique from real, named, living, specific people. Like, you could ask Gramerly to give you feedback in the style of novelist Stephen King or tech journalist Kara Swisher. Notably, Gramerley did not get permission from any of the hundreds of real.

alive human experts included in this feature that they called expert review. Side note, whenever some platform is rolling out some kind of dubious, questionable thing, they always have to give it a cutesy name that actually obscures how awful it truly is. So this is from the Verge, where they found that numerous other tech journalists named in this feature, including former Verge editors Casey Newton and Joanna Stern, former Verge writer Monica Chin, Wired's Lauren Good, Bloomberg, Mark German and Jason Scherer. The New York Times is Kashmir Hill,

the Atlantic's Caitlin Tiffany, PC gamers, West Benlin, Gizmodos, Raymond Wong, and many, many more. The descriptions for some of the experts also contain inaccuracies like outdated job titles, which the Verge notes, Gramerly could have actually updated in a correct way had they just reached out to these people for permission to reference their work and their names.

name. So that to me, I just find that to be, like, I don't even know. Usually when I hear a story like this, I have some sense of how we got here where it's like, oh, well, they miscalculated in this way or they overlooked this. I genuinely don't have an answer for how they, how grammarly got this so wrong. I genuinely don't. Yeah, this is one of those things with a lot of AI stuff for like genuinely my immediate reactionist just sort of like why like what's the point I don't know

I mean that's me I guess like if you just like really want to have like journalists like I just don't see the point of it or if you're gonna have like somebody commenting like wouldn't you want it to be like something kind of funny like I don't know like in the style of like Larry David or some shit like I don't know I feel like I'm like oh okay no I don't know I don't know again my response to most AI stuff is just kind of like, or hey, but what's the point?

Like, why would I want to do that? Yes. And, you know, if you asked ChatGBTBT to give you feedback in the style of some public figure or, like, journalist or voice, I'm sure it would do it. There was just something about grammarly taking it upon themselves to offer up advice from these people that I just find so strange. In his outlet platformer, Casey Newton actually showed Kara Swisher what kind of advice Grammarly was giving that they named as in her style or in her voice. And she said, quote, you rapacious information and identity thieves, better get ready for me to go full McConaughey on you.

Also, you suck, which I wonder if that's the style of receivants that Grammarly's AI was suggesting to people. So now, according to TechCrunch, one of the writers, journalist Julia Angwin, has filed a class action lawsuit against Superhuman, which is the parent company that owns Grammarly, arguing that Superhuman violated the privacy and publicity rights of her and other writers that they impersonated. Because this is a class action lawsuit, other writers who were impersonated in this way

or had their names or likeness is used can join the class. In a statement, Ann Gwyn said, I have worked decades honing my skills as a writer and editor, and I am distressed to discover that a tech company is selling an imposter version of my hard-earned expertise. So something else I have to just sort of pause on for a moment is that when this was first reported and all the writers were thinking,

what the hell and responding, also doing this to tech journalists, I feel like is so wild to me because it's like, these are people who are not afraid to speak up. They've made careers speaking up. Of all the people that you would not want to enrage through impersonation of their likeness, tech journalists,

I can't think of people who are worse to do this too. But so when all the journalists were speaking up, at first, Gramerly was like, okay, heard. You writers do not like this. So our compromise is that we're going to let the writers opt out if they don't want their names and likenesses used without permission, which to me is like, wow, y'all, that was the worst little attempt at a fix that y'all could have done, but then eventually they pulled, they did pull the feature all together.

And I think that little digression into saying, like, well, fine, y'all can opt out if you don't like it, really reveals grammarly and also a lot of AI companies, their first instinct, right? When confronted with the fact that they had used all these people's names and reputations and likenesses without their permission, it was not to apologize and take it down, but to offer this opt-out. Yeah, I feel like could do a drinking game with the show where like every time the word like opt out is said, that could be a big one. I don't know. I feel like that feels like basically every response now is like, oh, we're going to do this terrible thing, but you can opt out of it, which is great. I love that that's my responsibility now.

in a sort of morbidly curious way, I do wonder, like, what would my AI tone be towards editing somebody's writing? But yeah, no, that's... Man, I can't keep doing this. It's so bad. And I just think this dynamic where the burden should be on the writers

to go reclaim their identities from this, for-profit product that they never agreed to be in relationship with in the first place. I just think it tells you everything about how these companies think about consent. It's just, it's something that's like they're not thinking about it at all, and it's only something that they offer in the most disingenuous way when they're caught. And I just think that the idea that like the fact that one of these writers is starting a class action lawsuit, that's not cheap, right? having to get an attorney, having to do a lawsuit, that is not cheap. But like, that assumption

that we can use what you made, we can use what you built, we can use your name and who you are, you can come and ask us nicely to stop, but that legal fight is like yours to fund. That opt-out form is yours to figure out, yours to find. It's up to you to know that this is even happening in the first place because, like, had this not blown up online, I don't think people would have known, those burdens are just always on the creator. So that, actually reminds me of this other story that I saw. Shout out to Matt Grokut over at Petapixel for covering a very similar and also similarly upsetting story. So this guy, Gerald Carter, founded Diversity Photos back in 2016. I remember when this happened. I remember Diversity Photos.

If you've ever tried to find stock images, a lot of stock image websites are not very diverse. And so Diversity Photos was meant to be a Stock Photo Library. specifically built to serve communities that are often historically underrepresented and stop photos. He spent years recruiting real traditionally marginalized people, getting proper consent and building something genuinely valuable and scarce that filled a need. So in 2018, he partnered with Adobe to distribute these photos through Adobe stock. Now, back in 2018, like AI was a thing, but it was not a thing like it is now. And so, generative AI tools simply did not exist the way they exist now.

So in whatever contract he signed with Adobe stock, certainly there was no carve out for how those images would be used to train AI because that wasn't a thing yet, really. So he partners Adobe to distribute the diverse stock images through Adobe stock. Should be all good, right? Well, in 2023, Adobe launched Firefly. It's AI Image Generator. Now, I remember this too. I think we might have covered it on the podcast. I can't remember that, but I remember that they marketed it as a platform that was going to really respect creator rights at a time when a lot of voices were talking about like AI and creator rights. It was like a very splashy launch where Adobe said all the right stuff. So Carter, when they released this, quickly realized that Adobe had fed his entire diverse stock photo library into.

to Adobe's Firefly training data without asking, without even attempting to get some sort of separate license or contract. And notably, without any compensation, they just were like, oh, you get you partnered with us in this one capacity? We can use that in our AI. So when he pushed back, Adobe's position was that the 2018 distribution agreement that they had already gave them the right to do this, pointing to language about content for, quote, developing new features and services. Carter told Petapixel, when I found out that Adobe had fed our entire library into their AI training pipeline without asking, without a separate license, and without any compensation, it was devastating. They didn't just use a few images. They ingested our content and used it to

build products that now directly compete with us. Adobe's AI can now generate the same kind of diverse imagery that we spent years and significant resources creating. They took our competitive advantage and turned it into their feature. That is so messed up. Now Carter says that that clause was about improving the platform, not building a competing AI product because he's probably thinking I would have never agreed to let my images that I spent years and resources and money curating be used to create a competitor that I didn't agree to. Like he's like, I probably would never have agreed to that. So Adobe's argument is essentially that the word new means anything new under the sun, including technology that did not exist when the contract was signed, which that is

a terrible contract. Like, why would somebody ever sign that? That's like, what the hell? Yeah, we can just do whatever you want, whatever we want for however time. It's like a Ron Swanson contract from Parks and Recreation that just says, I can do whatever I want. I do what I want. Yeah. It's like, that's just every corporation now. I, God, this was so long ago, but I'm thinking about the, like, who was it? Disney, like, sued this couple who, like, die or this person that, like, died at Disney World or something. Like, it was like, one of those things. I remember that.

It was just like, oh, well, you couldn't have sued Disney. Yeah, yeah. They had signed up for, like, a trial of Disney Plus, and then she died from an allergy, a food allergy at a Disney theme park. and they were like, well, you clicked, yes, when you wanted that Disney Plus streaming subscription. Therefore, you can't sue us. Good fucking Lord. I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know. I've had a lot of people in my life recently like ask me questions about AI and like AI in the entertainment industry specifically and stuff. And I feel like I've genuinely reached the point where I just keeping like, I don't know, man.

I'm just going to hope for the best I hope that we don't totally like, I don't know, it's so, like, I'm trying to not be like, wow, it's so bleak, we're all so screwed because of this, but then I'm like, I, sure, we're signing away our rights to anything new, anything new. Anything new. I can do what I want. So Adobe offered Carter just a little over $1,000 in what they called a, quote, bonus fee for nearly 12,000 images that they're they used to train AI models that their company now monetizes through subscriptions. Now, Carter points out that this was not a licensing fee. They did not call it compensation. They called it a bonus, quote, as if they were doing me a favor,

and they made it clear that they didn't even believe they were required to pay that under the agreement. It showed a fundamental disrespect for the value of what we created and the communities that we respect. So Carter was like, you can take your money and shove it. he rejected that money. And just for some context, a single one-year license of his library of stock images for AI evaluation purposes can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. And Adobe is like, oh, actually we get it for free, but we'll throw you $1,000 just as a little bit of a bonus. I can understand why, like, folks should read the article. It's a really well-done article. And like, I can understand why he is so hurt and dejected because this is just, just,

just very disrespectful. This is a disrespectful way. It's disrespectful to act like you care about representing these communities. Enjoy all of this like splashy, positive PR about how you respect creators and then do somebody like this who was in partnership with you trying to fill an actual need in the way that we're represented online and imprinted an image. Like it's just so disrespectful and I can understand why this, my man sounds pissed. And every quote in the piece, my man sounds pissed. So Carter engaged in this legal fight and he says it was kind of designed to basically just spend down his money financially. And, you know, obviously Adobe has tons of money. They are not hurting for cash and he's one person. And so there was an arbitration clause in his

contract that said that Adobe would cover the cost if he could not afford them. But Adobe just allegedly refused to honor that clause. And then the arbitrator sided with Adobe's framing. So Carter had to withdraw from his last remaining legal claim because he said he couldn't afford the $24,000 fee. Just to argue his case, he just couldn't afford it. And so it really connects back to the story we were just talking about where, you know, it's these companies, I believe, stealing from people and misusing people's work and their labor and their talent and then saying, okay, well, if you have a problem with it, fight us in court. And again, I'm happy that the writers who were had their likenesses taken by Grammarly are trying to do a class action suit. That's great. But it shouldn't, the burden

should not be on individuals to go up against these massive companies that have massive resources, lawyers on retainer. It's just a really fucked system. Yeah. And it's like, it's one of those things it's sort of like with especially with this guy in my story like how was he supposed to know AI has moved so quickly in the last couple years like

so many of us have some sort of I have shared a lot of my photography online I'm sure some of that is like gone mine for AI stuff if you're again if you're somebody who like wrote fan fiction at some point that's probably or any sort of like online story you know that you just like publish that people can access, like, that's getting run. And it's all stuff that you wouldn't, like, I wouldn't have thought through with time

being like, oh, yeah, one day people are just going to make a bunch of copies. Like, that was like an issue that we didn't even know was going to happen, which is like, what's frustrating here? I mean, like, I think we were talking, like, Bridget, we talked about kind of like the AI, like voice training stuff too and all that where I, I, like, was talking to my friend recently where I said something that I was like, yeah, no, of course. I would like never sign away my voice or something like that. But also there's so many recordings of me speaking online at this point.

that somebody could very easily just like take that and make an AI thing out of it without my permission. So that's cool. I love that we just have like no say over our image anymore. It's really cool and really great. And I think it's a sign of progress and art becoming more democratized, obviously, and not just like the fact that I don't know.

I don't know. I just, I swear, I've heard the art, the art, argument so like way more in the past few months than I expected to and I was like it genuinely is like having like I like had multiple moments where I had to be like what the fuck are we talking about like what reality are you living in like I don't know I this is great this is great I feel so good about the future right now very well society we have here more after a quick break another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guide not quite on humor me with robert smigel and friends me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group? The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, uh, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation.

To the group. The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard Yard, but they're open. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle-aged. One erection.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify. Fian Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business.

Think IHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Let us show you at IHeartadvertising.com. That's iHeartadvertising.com. What's up, fam? Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast's point game is about define the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before.

And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense.

And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on Crimless, we're joined by our first ever guest.

Sorry, our first ever human guest. I don't think I could be in the same room with Shamrock the pair. I'd be too nervous. That's right. The very funny Will Ferrell joins Rory Scovel and me, Josh Dean, for an episode dedicated to the many crimes committed by people also named Will Ferrell. They called to his fellow officer for the nippers. What are the nippers?

Very good. question. No, I was thinking, would that be a good name for like a salad dressing? Simple assault. And it's a play on word, salt? Maybe not. I say we invest and we see. There's only one way to know. This did not amuse the cops. By the way, normally the cops are amused, but this did not abuse the cops. Will even comes clean about some of his own crimes. I didn't get caught. You know why? If you don't want to be suspected of anything, you whistle as you walk. Listen to crime lists on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change.

We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Let's get right back into it. Okay, so shout out to 404 Media. for this next story about quitter, which is an app that promises to help men stop watching pornography. Well, that app that promised to help men get their pornography viewing under control also leaked intimate data on hundreds of thousands of those men, many of whom are not mad at all, their minors, their kids. And to be clear, we're talking about information that includes their

masturbation habits. And the app, Quitter, according to 404, lied about the security issues that they knew the app was experiencing. So interestingly enough, when 404 first found out about this app and reported about it security issues back in January, they couldn't do so by naming the app because Quitter had not yet fixed these issues. And so they thought like, oh, well, if we report on the security issues and we name the app, that could just make the situation worse because it'll be like a bat signal to hackers, because they haven't fixed this.

The piece reads that they reported Quitter exposing user data in January, but we were unable to name Quitter in the story because its creators, Alex Slater and Connor McLaren, did not fix its security issues despite multiple requests and an offer from an independent researcher to help them fix the problem. Naming the app while hackers were still able

to easily steal Quitter's user data would have endangered their privacy and put them at risk of extortion from hackers, which is very common today. Some of the data exposed includes the users age, how often they masturbate, and how viewing pornography makes them feel. According to that data, many of them are minors. And so this is awful. It reminds me quite a lot of the T app, which 404Media also investigated, where app developers, they claim to care about some super intimate or super

sensitive gendered issue, and they make an app around it, and then just do not meaningfully demonstrate the most basic standard level of care to this vulnerable community that they claim to want to be protecting or helping. What they actually want to be doing is just like getting rich. As 404 writes, Quitter is operated by Slater and McLaren, members of the so-called app mafia, gross, a group of men in their early 20s who claimed to have made millions of dollars on mobile app development. Slater and McLaren were recently subjects of a long New York Mad profile, which detailed the opulent lifestyle the success of Quitter has afforded them, including driving exotic supercars and living in a Miami mansion.

Slater shares videos about his lifestyle on his personal YouTube channel as well. So I checked out Alex Slater's YouTube, and it's exactly the kind of soulless, rich guy in his 20s who lives in Miami YouTube vlog content that you would imagine. It's him like, on a balcony of a condo in Miami with like palm trees behind him or doing boxing lessons or like doing a backflip into an infinity pool. Just the most boring.

Like basically you're exploiting young people who are vulnerable so that you can live the most boring, soulless cookie cutter, rich kid asshole, normie douchebag existence on social media possible. It's just so boring. I mean, that's what my Instagram looks like. So I don't know. Sounds like actually. Joey doing a backflip into an internet. No, if I could do a backflip, I would post constantly about it.

Side note, I used to be able, like my thing when I was growing up was how good I was at backflips. And my friends and I, when I was in junior high, we went as to Spice Girls for Halloween. And I was the only black girl in the group. And so they were like, oh, you've got to be scary. But I was like, actually, I should be sporty because, one, she wears supports bros and I wore sports girls all the time. And two, she's always doing backflips and I can do a backflip. Yeah, no, I'm so jealous. I unfortunately cannot do a backflip.

I never could. But I really would love to. I haven't, like, tried to, like, learn how to, but I would love if I could just wake up one day and do a backflip. Yeah. No, I agreed. It is, like, it's always the same kind of dude. They're always in Miami.

Yeah, I don't know. whole, like the whole premise behind this app too is like depressing on it. Like it's like I don't think too or it's like I, yeah, it's like there is such a moral panic around porn and around masturbation right now and I'm willing to assume that like the majority of the users are probably people that are like more affected by that than like actual like sex addiction or anything. Again, I don't know. Like this is speculative. But I think like just hearing all the story and in tandem with like, yeah, a lot of the weird. like alt-right online discourse about like masturbation and about sex for like young men.

It's like, yeah, I'm not surprised that like a lot of these are teenagers and like that probably is a deeper issue we should, you know, talk about. Oh, yes. There is actually a fantastic episode that does a deep dive into this of the podcast Panic World about how the no-fap movement, which is like a movement that tries to get people to stop masturbating and sort of the porn rejection movement can sometimes like if you like there are people who legitimately feel like porn just like any other thing has become an issue in their life that they don't feel they have control over but and that's like a valid thing however the episode really makes a very interesting argument about how that feeling which in a lot of cases can be valid

can also be so easily exploited toward extremism and just sort of like an extreme misdemeest ways of thinking. It's such an interesting episode. We'll put the link in the show notes. But yeah, I guess I agree with you that we're just in a climate where it's so hard to have nuanced conversations about sex and young people and what healthy attitudes around those things look like for folks. And I think these people are really exploiting that, that we don't have a lot of places to have nuanced conversations about how to have a healthy relationship with sex and pornography and masturbation. And you know, if they just made an A03.com account,

I'm trying to make a joke. I'm thinking of what you're putting down. I'm just bringing it back. Yeah, yeah. Fun fact, I did at one point, I'm not denying the fact that there's, like, a lot of porn in A.O3 there is. But I did have a partner at one point who I would talk a lot about fan fiction and the entire time he assumed that I was just talking about porn and it literally took like

months of this happening before he like said something about it and I was like you think I've been talking about porn this entire time like are you I was like again like I'm not denying that there was some in there but like damn like you really just let me go on about this thing for months thinking I was just talking about porn the entire time dang they bring up porn at a dinner table they bring it up at a lot party talk about it all the time I was like because there were some Ports, too, I was like, I definitely was like, yeah, you should read some of this. You would like it. Like, you're a writer.

You like this stuff. And I'm like, I love the, you sat through me having that conversation. And it, yeah, like, took you months to be like you're talking about porn. And I was like, well, not necessarily, but. I got, this is going to be my takeaway at the end of the day. I do you, I do you, everything you need on the internet is on A.O3. You don't need anything else. It's so true.

So these guys sound like such assholes to me. in that New York MAG profile, one of them is quoted as saying, quote, we were like, how can we build an app to make money? Then I realized how large the issue was. That's when it became more of a passion project. Like, how can we help men actually become men again? I just hate that so much. And like, according to them, I mean, yeah, like the way that these,

first of all, go look at this guy's YouTube and tell me that, like, this is the person that you think is the model for healthy, masculinity. So it does sound like this app is having some success, according to the creators. Quitter has supposed to have been downloaded more than 1.5 million times, and they say it brings in $500,000 a month. But despite these incredible numbers and all of this money and all of these downloads, the developers were somehow unable or unwilling to fix this major security flaw that was putting their users, many of whom are minors at risk for months. So yeah, you'll forgive me if I don't think these sound like people who are meaningfully invested in helping the men and boys that are making them rich by using their apps if they cannot even make the bare minimum investments in protecting the very sensitive information that these people are giving to these these app developers.

Explain how that works to me. How is men not masturbating, making them more masculine? Like, I feel like there's no consensus here. Either you have to be like hypersexual or like not having sex at all. Like I'm confused. I'm confused. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying.

I just think we have a dynamic where men and boys have these, you know, valid anxieties around. What does it mean to be men? And then you have these charlatans who. just want to get rich, basically stepping in and saying, we can help you be, quote, a real man, give me your money, and then just exploiting these anxieties and vulnerabilities that they're expressing. And I guess in a well culture, we would have more healthy spaces for folks who feel like they are genuinely struggling with pornography or whatever,

instead of just hand your most sensitive information about this vulnerable part of yourself over to a charlatan so that he can be taking a boxing class and driving a Lamborghini in Miami. Like, is that like, it's like, oh, can you do healthy spaces and meaningful, nuanced conversation? Best I can do is scam you and I get rich off of it. You know, like, it infuriates me. So the researcher said that he could access the information of more than 600,000 users of the app, including 100,000 of which that he identified as minors. And so mind you, this app invites users to write confessions about their masturbation habits.

One of them wrote, I just can't do this man. I honestly don't know what to do anymore. I'm such a loser. I need serious help. Like, these are real people, possibly even like teens who downloaded this app because they were struggling or like vulnerable. And they trusted the person on the other side of the screen who built this app. And that person did not give a damn about them because if they did give a damn about them,

because if they did give a damn about them, they would have built in those basic security features to protect their sensitive information. And like, the story is so awful. A journalist called one of the app developers to find out what was going on. And even though the app developers had previously confirmed, like, oh, this is a problem, we're going to fix it.

Thanks to pointing it out. They told this journalist, there isn't a problem, but then hung up on them. And so, yeah, I just feel like these people, they're just so sensitive. and gross and self-interested. And I hate how lazily and sloppily they're able to weaponize folks' vulnerabilities so that they can get rich.

And I guess I would caution there are so many apps like this. Like I think like this is not a one-off story. There's so many spaces and people and stuff online that are about, that wrap it in the language of healing and self-improvement and leveling up and all of that. It's about extracting money and data and moving on to the next craft. And I'm just, I'm just sick of it. More after a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL, late night comedy guide, not quite.

Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk, to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. There's that worst singer in the group. The worst? Yeah.

Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group. The yard herds, right? That's the name. The Harvard yard, but they're open. Do you have a name suggestion?

We're open. Since you guys are middle-aged, one erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora.

And as the number one podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business. Think IHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcast. Call 844-844-I-Hart to get started. That's 844-8-4-Ehart.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the play.

playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the bar. Like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah. You figure it. it out real quick. Oh, yeah.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on Crimless, we're joined by our first ever guest. Sorry, our first ever human guest. I don't think I could be in the same room with Shamrock the parrot. I'd be too nervous. That's right.

The very funny, Will Farrell joins Rory Scovel and me, Josh Dean, for an episode dedicated to many crimes committed by people also named Will Farrell. They called to his fellow officer for the nippers. What are the nippers? Very good question. No, I was thinking, would that be a good name

for like a salad dressing? Simple assault. And it's a play on word, salt? Maybe not. I say we invest and we see. There's only one way to know. This did not amuse the cops. By the way, normally the cops are amused, but this did not abuse the cops.

Will even comes clean about some of his own crimes. I didn't get caught. You know why? If you don't want to be suspected of anything, you whistle as you walk. Listen to Crimlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and host of the podcast, a slash, change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share

stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that needs. None of us likes. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get right back into it. Okay, so we have to talk about this new Uber feature that they just rolled out that allows both women riders and women drivers across the U.S.

to only be matched with other women for trips. Uber had initially launched this as a pilot program in a few states, but now it is rolling out nationwide. This, despite an ongoing class action lawsuit against this women-only drivers-slash-riders policy in California, which was filed by Uber drivers who argue that it discriminates against men, Lyft, a rival ride-sharing company, also faced a similar discrimination lawsuit over a similar offering that it issued nationwide in 2024, according to the AP. So according to Uber's blog, this feature allows women to request a female driver through an option called women drivers. Passengers can opt for another ride if the wait for a woman is too long. They can also reserve a trip with a woman driver in advance. A third option allows female users

to set a preference for a female driver in the app settings, which would increase the chances of being matched with a woman but doesn't guarantee it. Uber also allows teen account users to request women drivers. Uber's women drivers can set the app's preferences to request trips with female riders, and then they can turn off that preference anytime that they want. Now, Uber says that they hope that this will help attract more women drivers. I know what you're thinking? What about trans women? What about non-binary folks?

Well, unlike Lyft's Women Connect program, Uber's feature is not open to riders or drivers who identify as non-binary. According to the AP, for drivers, Uber says the company just relies on the gender listed on somebody's driver's license, meaning that for trans women, their ability to use the feature basically kind of depends on whether or not their state allows them to change their gender identification on documents. So kind of goes back to what we talked about a few episodes ago with Kansas. Like, I think this rollout, I have a lot of thoughts about this rollout. I'll put it that way. Yeah. I have a question here. I have a question here because like Bridget, have,

have you ever had the experience of like have it like calling an Uber getting the profile picture and like the name and it's like a woman is a woman's name it's like feminine name and then you get in the car and there's like a man I have it's not the person because like like my question is I'm like okay but what's stopping people from doing that like this is the first I'm hearing that they need like check their driver's license because I was like I've definitely had that happen a couple times and like I don't know for me it was never like oh my god this feels like it's a nefarious whatever Like I was like, sure, whatever. I sure you did that for whatever reason.

But yeah, that's my main question is just like, how do you even enforce that policy? I don't know. Yeah, I've had that experience more with food delivery where it says Sheila is coming with your order. And I'm like, I don't think, I don't know if you're Sheila. You don't match this picture. I always assume it's like somebody couldn't use the app for some reason. And so now they're using like a girlfriend's account or a friend's account. That's what I always assume.

But that's a good question. of like, I don't know how strict the enforcement is on any of this. Just the whole way down, I don't know how strict the enforcement is on any of this. Just full stop. In response to this policy, two California Uber drivers filed a class action lawsuit against Uber arguing that by potentially giving female drivers access to a wider pool of passengers, the feature violates California's Unruh Act, which prohibits sex discrimination by business enterprises. The lawsuit also argues that Uber's policy reinforces the gender stereotype that men

are more dangerous than women. So the AP spoke to Anne Olivrius, who is a co-founder of a law firm that specializes in sex discrimination and harassment cases. And she said that she believes that rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft have a strong case against discrimination litigation because the feature addresses an urgent business need to protect clients. Lowering a client's risk of rape? Is that a business necessity? I would argue that it is a business necessity, she said. So all of that being said, I have what might be a little bit of an unpopular opinion about this, which is that I don't like it. And here is why. So I want to be clear, it is true that sexual assaults and assaults and harassment in Rideshare is a problem between 2017 and 2022, Uber

received a report of sexual assault or misconduct almost every eight minutes, totaling over 400,000 reports over five years, which was far higher than a much smaller number around 12,000, of, quote, serious incidents that the company had publicly disclosed. So I want to be clear that this is a real problem. In 2021, Lyft put out a safety report that showed that 4,158 sexual assault reports from 2017 to 2019 had occurred. That report came out on 2021. Lyft has not released a safety report since. And I want to talk about how that one report from Lyft came to be. In one of our earliest episodes of the podcast, I think it might have been our third or fourth episode. We'll put that episode in the show notes. We spoke to my friend Alison Turcos. Alison Turcos is amazing. They have turned into an advocate

for making ride shares safer for everybody after a horrifying incident. So just a heads up that this does include like horrifying sexual assault content because Allison was sexually assaulted in a lift in 2017. After a night out with friends, they got into a lift. That driver had a gun. And at gunpoint drove Allison to a different state because this happened in Brooklyn. like Brooklyn, New Jersey, you know, was a, they're close by states, where Allison was then gang raped by multiple men. It is the most horrifying, harrowing thing I have ever heard. Then they sued Lyft.

And to this day, they are still fighting to make ride shares safer for everybody because of that horrible, horrible experience. And so, and so the only reason why Lyft released that report in 2021, that one report was because Allison pushed and advocated for them to do so. And they dragged their feet. They only did it kicking and screaming because they continued to stay on Lyft's ass to make them do it. So the only reason we even have any insight into those numbers is because of them. And that was a dog fight. That was like pulling teeth. And so I guess what I'm saying is that people like Allison, who have had these horrible experiences, they have had to use those experiences to push for these companies to do the baseline right thing. And I want to be clear that I think it is possible

that this women, riders, drivers, drivers thing might make the experience of ride share safer. And if it prevents one assault, in my book, that is great. However, I also think they do these little PR moves that are really kind of like bells and whistles and add-ons to avoid having to do the more meaningful and urgent work of making their systems less exploitative. And they do that while continuing to silence and lie about the mostly women and non-binary people who have been harmed because of their product, right? And so if these companies like Lyft and Uber really did care about safety, they would be lifting these folks up, not silencing them. Yeah, I agree. I agree.

I honestly, it's interesting. Like when you were starting this story, I sort of had a second where I was like, wow, am I going to have to be the person of this one to be like, I actually don't know about this. But no, I, it is like one of those things where, because I've heard about this being a thing before. Like I've heard about this being like a like, yeah, you could request women drivers. Personally, I've never used it. But it is always one of those things that to me I'm like, how much does this actually protect people?

Honestly, like, I don't know. And like, I mean, like you said, maybe it does. There's no real way of knowing for sure. Yeah, I agree with what you said. And I think it seems like it's more doing the PR than it is actually helping people. And that's where I'm like, even just the fact that there's such a like performative lawsuit about this from the other side where it's like obvious. And again, having just talked about a bunch of different lawsuits in this episode where it's like, it's very expensive. You have to pay for all this stuff.

And then you look at it. it's like these male Uber drivers are mad and it's like, okay, this is definitely being funded by one of those like weird, like, we're taking back, we're ending woke kind of like, like it's the same thing with like the affirmative action stuff. Like it's like this is backed by like a bigger like political thing. This has nothing to do with like gender equality or whatever. Yeah. But like the fact that they can do that and it's so obviously performative makes me wonder if like what Uber was trying to do was even effective in the first place, you know? Yeah. I wonder the exact same thing. I would love to, I mean, I have not seen studies that suggest that this meaningfully makes the experience of rideshare safer. I will do some research and update folks, but I, yeah, I just, there are so many things that Uber and Lyft and RideShare could do if they wanted to be responsible for less harm.

And I just don't like that they, and I also wonder, like, if somebody is assaulted or harmed, will they be like, oh, well, you should have picked that? Like, put the women driver's option. I just see this as a way to put the onus back. on us. And I just, I don't know. I just, I, I just don't like it. I don't, I don't think it, and I just, it's hard for me to read stories like this one where Uber and ride share companies are ostensibly doing something that like maybe kind of seems good and maybe is kind of good without thinking about people like my friend Allison, who I know was so deeply harmed by a ride share company. And just the sheer amount of horror and pain that,

they had to go through and endure to even get these companies to be talking about safety. Like, I just see the way that the blood and sweat and harm and pain and grief and trauma of people like Allison is what gets us to these, like, pittily little, like, is that cannot possibly be enough to repair the damage that they have, these companies have done. I just, yeah, it's a tough one for me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like, and again, what you said, like, it's like, what's the response? Like, oh, you should have picked the women's only one.

Like, maybe you should have fielded your employees better. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's also a bigger issue about, like, how Uber works, where it's all, like, contracts, not like, direct, but whatever. Yeah, there's bigger societal company-specific issues here. Also, like, I don't mean this in a, like, not all men, women do this too kind of way, but like, it feels very like, we're just putting, we're saying, because this is only women, like, nothing bad can happen.

But then, like, what if something bad happens? Like, what is the response to that? So something I've been feeling just in my digital diet is I'm using social media a lot less in general, but I'm using Instagram specifically a lot less. And it turns out that I am not alone because a comprehensive report from Buffer analyzed tens of millions of posts from over 191,000 monthly users throughout 2025. And basically, people are not using Instagram like they once were. The report found declining interaction rates on Instagram, LinkedIn, and threads, while platforms like X, Pinterest, and Facebook were seeing gains.

And we talked a little bit about this, but I am not surprised by any of this. I do you, what is your, I'm supposed to. that X and Facebook are getting more. I guess I shouldn't be because it's just more than I'm like, I'm not the one using it. Facebook I'm less surprised over it because again, I think it's just the generational. I am genuinely surprised that X is getting more views. I am however, yeah, very much not surprised. I've been having a very similar sort of thing with Instagram lately. It's I actually, like, of being the year, like totally just like deleted off my phone for two weeks. And it was hard. But like, I don't know, like I've been going back and forth about just like trying to

take it off my phone and clearly. I can't because I need to use it a lot for my job and for connecting with people and like it has become a way how I like a big part of how I communicate with people. But I like I keep having to like think be like, wow, I'm stressed. What are some things that are stressing me out? And like Instagram is always one of the ones that's just like right there. And I'm like, yeah, like my options are kind of just like continue to do this or delete it or like try to use it less or whatever. But, but yeah, no, 100% totally hard. I have beef with Instagram lately. Yeah, I kind of have to be there to promote the show, the book, you know, a bunch of my other work.

I don't, I find myself using it less and less for genuine. It once was a place where you would genuinely showcase like your personal life, what you were doing, where you were up, what you were up to. I don't really do that anymore. And I think part of it is that it, I just, I'm just burned out on social media. and I think that Instagram is an app where they make such rapid changes that it doesn't feel worth it to stay checked in to how the app works anymore. It is rare that I see people that I know in real life that I have told Instagram that I want to follow. I'll be like, I'm following you. I want you in whatever the thing used to be able to pick to be like, I want to see this person's content first.

I can't remember the last time I saw somebody that I genuinely know on Instagram. It's all people I don't know, influencers I don't. know. And I don't use TikTok anymore since it was sold. But for a while, it was just like, oh, do you want to see reels a week later that people already saw on TikTok? Like, that's how it was feeling. And also, I used to be in a place where I would get feedback from Instagram about how to succeed on the platform. They're tripping. Like the amount of work that they, Basically, it's like you have to be, I mean, this is just, I don't remember what it actually was, but it was like, oh, to perform well on the algorithm, you need to post five times a day a reel and once a day in the story and this and comment this many times. And, you know, I'm self-employed. I don't work for meta. At some point, it's like, am I just working for this algorithm? And then they're going to change it in a week. And then all the stuff that I thought that I was told, perform. formed well on Monday by Friday is going to be totally different.

And just keeping up with that just became such a slog. Yeah, it's genuinely like there's exactly exactly. It either just moves so fast or it just is not really effective to begin with. I remember also reading something that had that same. It was like post five reels a day. And I was like, I do not have time for that. Yeah, I agree about the algorithm too. I mean, my main issue with it recently, because I went from, I loved Instagram for so long.

I think like especially like, I'm a photographer. I like, it was really great. It was a great way to like keep up with what my friends were doing. It was a great way to like keep in touch with people. Now it's like literally every time I open it, I just recently had to go through and like block a bunch of celebrity news sites because somehow it like, you will like look at one thing for too long and that's, it'll be your entire, like, feed. And I genuinely was just like, I end up down a rabbit hole where I was like, I keep like spiraling out over this like comparing myself to people, like doing all

of these things. And I was like, what am I doing? Like, I'm literally. And I was like, I, the problem is I just keep getting all of these like celebrity news videos. And I was like, I don't even care about the shit. Like, this has nothing to do with my life. If I was, it would be one thing if I was opening it and being like, oh, cool, let's see what my friends are up to or like, I think a lot of like, uh, I think a lot of like, uh,

A lot of like events stuff now is also on Instagram. Like a lot of like nightlife stuff that I go to. They're like promoting it on Instagram. So I'm like, I kind of going to stand Instagram to know when things are happening. But like, yeah, there's also, there's so many ads. That's where I'm at right now is like trying to navigate being like, this is a useful tool for me to keep in touch with people. For me to like promote my work for me to do whatever. Also I need to find a way for it not to like, yeah, give me like panic attacks every time I

open it because like I yeah it's either that or it's like you end up on some sort of like I think getting a lot of like very rage baity like Instagram reels lately too I think like really weird because TikTok there's definitely a problem with this it's it's somehow worse on reels like I think it's if you're thinking it was so like the kind of surprise surprise I get a lot of like content aimed at like queer people um on TikTok I feel like it's much more aligned with what I want to see and then on reels it's like stuff that is like genuinely, like, I'll have to stop and be like, is this rage bait or is this something like somebody is like legitimately making it? Like, it feels much more like, I don't really know,

like, this feels like it's so obvious. They're just trying to like manipulate the algorithm to the point that I'm like, what am I doing on this app? Like, I don't know. One of my goals for this year that has been going very poorly is I, as of every year, I'm like, I'm going to spend less time on like social media and try to repair the fact that my brain like doesn't have. have an attention span anymore, but you know what? It's hard. It's hard. I'll give it to y'all. Everybody else is trying to do that. It's as somebody who's been trying to use Instagram

blast over the last, like, how many months in the year are we? Two and a half months now. Like, it's really hard. No, I'm with you. My, I had to sort of divest from a lot of mine was shade room and other kinds of, like, there's just a, just such a scourge of like

like, like aimed at black audiences, like you can tell it's aimed at black audiences, just the worst base content you've ever seen in your life. And something about it just pulls me in. Like you can say any masogynistic,

transphobic, queerphobic, fatphobic fucked up thing on Instagram. And I just said, I found myself, in just a toxic relationship with that kind of content. I had to go through and unfollow and block specific accounts. And I think I might be more susceptible than your average bear on this one because I get pulled in and then you're just training the algorithm that's like,

oh, so you like this post that shared a picture of the fact that your favorite singer, Shade has a gender nonconforming child. and you like that this outlet posted the picture of the child and just the word thoughts, question mark, you like content like that. And it's like they never, I mean, I could talk all day. They never come out and say it. The kind of content defies me, they never come out and say it,

but you know exactly what they're insinuating. The comments are all crazy. They're all hateful. And I just like, it was like, I felt like that kind of stuff was following me around the internet. It was just so toxic for me. Yeah, no, it's bad. Yeah, again, like I fully just, like, deleted Instagram off my phone for, like, a week at the beginning of this year.

Because, like, I don't know. Like, I had kind of a rough start to the year. And, like, there was just, like, a point where, like, one of the things that was really bugging me was, like, I just have, like, I'm somebody that lives in, like, a very, you know, I'm very, you know, I'm very, like, I'm very, like, openly, queer and, like, openly, like, gender nonconforming and stuff like that. But it was, like, I was, like, I was reaching a point where I was, like, getting stressed and I was, like, getting anxious about, like, presenting the way that I do. and I was like, I'm not getting this from the people around me. I'm getting this from being on my phone all the time, like, genuinely. And, yeah, that's why. And I mean, I agree with you.

I think I'm the same way where I was like, I definitely get sucked into the, like, the rabbit hole of whatever the thing is. I'm in an abusive relationship with Instagram. I think that's what I'm going to say. Because I know I'm not going to delete it, but I hate it. I hate what it's doing in my brain. But also I'm on it all the time. So you're not one of the people that's using it less. Maybe you did when you deleted it.

I want to. You aspire to. I aspire to. I'm really trying. It's not going super well, but I'm really trying. But yeah, and again, like what I was saying, it's also hard. Like, one of my goals for myself this year was I was like, I want to get back into posting a lot of my photography. And I've been trying to do, like, I have done some, like modeling on the side and stuff like that.

And I was like, well, I need to use my Instagram to promote that. Like, I need to. Like, that's kind of like the way that I make, like, that's how I also connect with other artists. That's how I, like, show people of work that I'm doing. Our only option is the thing that's, like, ruining all of our brains. So I guess I'm just going to keep using the thing that's ruining all our brains. Like, I don't know what else I'm supposed to do. Yeah, sometimes it feels like we have a little bit of a dismal digital landscape,

but we have places like AOSERIA. Yeah. We have, there is hope. We have places like AOCER. That is again the end of the fucking day. 803 is what gives me hope in this world. Always nice to end on a little bit of internet landscape hope. Joey, thank you so much for being here.

Where can folks keep up with you? Of course. Any time, you can find me failing to not be on Instagram at... At Pat Not Pratt. That's P-A-T-N-O-T-P-R-A-T-T. That's also my Twitter and other things that I only really use Instagram. You can find me on TikTok at Hot Topic Dad. That's Hot Topic like the store and then Dad like the father figure.

You can hear more of my work on There Are No Girls the Internet. You can also check out some of our other outspoken shows like Outlaws, the T.S. Madison, the Black Bat Fem podcast, and Afterlives. All the Rich feature work that I've done. But yeah, find me online. You find me walking around with my ESPN podcast hat. Find me and I'm still waiting for whatever the next heated rivalry Ravis near where I live. I want to dress up as Scott with the like baseball hat on and the sunglasses. I think that would be fun.

That's also just how I dress most days. Bridget, you haven't gotten to that episode yet. Oh, that's the Captain America one. That's, yeah. Okay. I'll watch it and then I'll report back. Again, this is, it's so weird because I was like, I have this one weird area of expertise from having been a weird kid out on the internet

at 16. Embrace cringe. Embrace the weird thing you're into. You never know when it's going to become the biggest piece of media of the year. Yes. And please embrace our audio book. Love at first. prompt. You can pre-order it at love at first prompt.a. If you do that and you send me a

screenshot of you of your pre-order or an email with your screenshot of your pre-order, we will send you a hidden written thank you card and a sticker. So please do that. Thanks to everybody. He's already done it. Thanks so much to all of you for listening. I will see you on the internet. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech or just want to say hi? You can reach us at hello at tangoati.com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangoody.com. There are no girls on the internet was created by me, Bridget Todd. It's a production of IHeart Radio and unbossed creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer.

Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, write and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, check out the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends.

me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam, it's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano.

It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game. the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your 20s can be so exciting, but they can also be really overwhelming, confusing, and honestly, just kind of lonely.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the psychology of your 20s is breaking down the science behind the biggest roadblocks we face. I was six years into my career, the 80-hour weeks, and just the first one in, the last one out, and I ended up burning out. There was a large chunk of my 20s that I, like, was just so wanting to, like, be out of that phase out of my skin,

and I just, like, really regret not living in the present more. You don't need to have everything figured out right now. You just need to understand yourself a little bit better. Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark. When, like, young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever. My first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? Rather be disappointed in.

Do that. David O'Yello-O. I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or not. relationships, or religion, or sex, or addiction, or you just go straight for the guts. Dennis Leary, Gait and Moderato from Stranger Things, Tana Monsu, Camilla Morone, Carrie Kenny Silver, and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Joey Dardano, and on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives,

helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. psych! I'm a comedian! I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite Wednesdays on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.