THIS WEEK ON THERE ARE NO GIRLS ON THE INTERNET
There Are No Girls on the Internet is a weekly podcast hosted by Bridget Todd. Every week we drop our news roundup — the tech and internet stories that don't get enough attention, the ones about AI, power, gender, race, and who actually gets hurt when systems fail.
This week: A man films men at urinals to catch "groomers." A Texas woman gets arrested for a Facebook post about brown water. And the word "Black" keeps disappearing from places it needs to be.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. New roundup episode every Friday.
📰 Here's what we were watching this week:
Schools posted photos of their students online — now criminals are turning them into explicit deepfakes and demanding money. For years, schools have proudly posted photos of their students online. Now criminals are scraping those photos, using AI to create explicit images of children, and blackmailing schools to keep them quiet. One UK school had 150 images made from their website alone. Experts are now urging schools to take all student photos down immediately. 🔗 The Guardian
A female JPMorgan banker was accused of turning her male colleague into a sex slave — now she's suing him back, saying he made it all up. Last month, a JPMorgan VP accused his female colleague of coercing him into sex, threatening him with racial slurs, and saying she "owned" him. The story went viral. Now she's fighting back, saying he fabricated everything to get money and attention — and that the lies have destroyed her life with nonstop harassment and memes. JPMorgan offered him $1 million to settle before he even filed. 🔗 The Guardian
Elon Musk's ex says he told her he had secret access to real-time election data before the results came in. Ashley St. Clair, who dated Elon Musk, is claiming he bragged to her about having access to election numbers before they were publicly announced — and that he knew Trump was going to win hours early. He also allegedly referenced "10,000 lasers in space" and an "anomaly in the matrix." Musk's team is calling it total nonsense. She has no proof — but the internet has thoughts. 🔗 Yahoo
A new law now forces social media platforms to remove explicit deepfakes and revenge porn within 48 hours of reporting — or face massive fines. The Take It Down Act is now fully in effect. If someone posts explicit images of you without your consent — real or AI-generated — platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit are legally required to take them down within 48 hours of reporting. Companies that don't comply face fines of over $53,000 per violation. It's already led to one conviction. But critics warn the law could be abused as a censorship tool — and Trump himself joked at his State of the Union that he planned to use it for himself. 🔗 The 19th | 🔗 The Verge
A man was jailed for 37 days for sharing a meme after Charlie Kirk was killed — a court just ordered the sheriff to pay him $835,000. After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed last year, a Tennessee man shared some memes on Facebook. His local sheriff decided that was a threat and had him arrested in the middle of the night. His bail was set at $2 million. He sat in jail for over a month before the charge was dropped. Now the sheriff owes him $835,000. 🔗 The New York Times
The DOJ just punished PayPal for creating a fund to help Black-owned businesses — and called it illegal discrimination. In 2020, PayPal created a $530 million fund to help Black and minority-owned small businesses. The Trump DOJ investigated it as illegal discrimination against white people. To settle, PayPal must now redirect that support to veteran-owned and farming businesses instead. No law was found to have been broken — but PayPal caved anyway. 🔗 Reuters
Congress quietly removed the word "Black" from a bill designed to save Black mothers' lives — and advocates are furious. Black women in America are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. Congress has been trying to pass a bill to fix this for years. It was called the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act. Now, under pressure from Trump's anti-DEI crackdown, lawmakers have stripped "Black" from the title and almost everywhere in the text. Supporters say it had to be done to survive. Critics say a bill that won't name Black women can't save them. 🔗 What I'm Reading
A white doctor is suing a directory called "Find A Black Doctor" for not letting him list his practice on it. "Find A Black Doctor" is a directory founded to help Black patients find Black physicians. A white Colorado dermatologist, backed by a conservative anti-DEI group, is now suing it for not listing him. The same group previously went after a Coca-Cola distributor for hosting a women's empowerment event. 🔗 Black Enterprise
A Texas woman posted on Facebook that her town's water was making people sick — the city had her arrested for it. Jennifer Combs posted on Facebook that residents in Trinidad, Texas were being hospitalized from bacteria in the water. The city arrested her for "filing a false report." But the water was brown. A boil notice was later issued. The mayor admitted the pipes date back to the 1950s. She's now suing the city for political retaliation. 🔗 FOX 4
A man who wore Meta smart glasses to a Pride event to catch "groomers" was arrested for secretly filming men at the urinals. A Florida man wore Meta smart glasses to a Pride event, claiming he was there to expose child groomers. He used them to secretly record men at the urinals and posted the video online. The men he filmed were undercover cops. He also tried to bring a gun — then came back with an AR-15. Naples Pride responded: "A man who publicly accused our community of 'grooming' now stands accused of unlawfully recording people in a place where privacy is expected. The irony is difficult to ignore." 🔗 LGBTQ Nation
Bridget's forthcoming audiobook with Simon & Schuster, Love At First Prompt, explores AI, sex, and intimate relationships. Pre-order at LoveAtFirstPrompt.ai
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