Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: Roblox protests, Disney x Midjourney lawsuit, Moshi Monsters Kickstarter + Tinder trust & safety interview

Transcript

MINI TECH SCROLL: Roblox protests, Disney x Midjourney lawsuit, Moshi Monsters Kickstarter + Tinder trust & safety interview · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  This episode of Mini Tech Scroll is sponsored by Tinder.
• 0:03
  Stick around until the end of the episode to hear Lauren
• 0:05
  interview 2 experts about online safety and how platforms can
• 0:09
  help protect users while online dating.
• 0:11
  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:14
  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
• 0:17
  media, the creator economy, and the digital space every Monday
• 0:20
  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
• 0:22
  My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
• 0:25
  host and also the deputy editor of the youth digital media brand
• 0:29
  Centennial The World. Wow, I feel like I have not done
• 0:33
  that in a while. I am officially back from my
• 0:36
  trip. I am feeling a little bit rusty
• 0:39
  and jet lagged. I did wake up at 4:00 AM today.
• 0:43
  But we continue, we push through.
• 0:46
  But I am definitely happy to be back.
• 0:48
  I haven't done a like proper traveling trip in years so this
• 0:53
  was such a fun experience. I'm not going to bore you with
• 0:57
  all the details. And if you don't want to hear
• 0:59
  anything about the trip, there are time stamps in the
• 1:01
  description. But I spent a couple weeks in
• 1:03
  Italy before heading off to Primavera Sound in Barcelona
• 1:07
  where I saw the Sweat Tool live along with Serena Carpenter and
• 1:11
  Chapel Rhone. Crazy headliners.
• 1:13
  I loved it so much. And then after that I went to
• 1:17
  London to see Cowboy Carter, which was truly life changing.
• 1:21
  If you know me, I feel like everyone knows I kind of hate
• 1:24
  spending money, but when it comes to concert tickets, I fear
• 1:27
  I have no self-control. But it was definitely so, so
• 1:32
  worth it. It was also nice to have a
• 1:34
  little bit of a break from being so online.
• 1:37
  But with that being said, if there was anything that happened
• 1:39
  over the break that you want me to cover that was kind of tech
• 1:42
  related, let me know. Because this week I've just kind
• 1:45
  of decided to include recent stories instead of doing a whole
• 1:49
  wrap up of what we missed. But before we get into the
• 1:52
  stories for this week, Lauren did set up a buy me a coffee
• 1:56
  while I was away. So if you want to help keep
• 1:59
  Centennial showing, the link is at the top of every episode
• 2:02
  description. Other than that, Please remember
• 2:05
  to rate, review and subscribe because we are still trying to
• 2:07
  get to 10K on YouTube. But yeah, let's get into the
• 2:11
  content for this week. My first story for today is that
• 2:14
  Roblox users have taken to the platform to digitally protest.
• 2:18
  So over the past few days, the United States has erupted into
• 2:22
  protest about a number of issues.
• 2:24
  As I'm sure you have seen on social media, the protests have
• 2:27
  definitely been all-encompassing, but part of
• 2:29
  the have been in response to the Trump administration's attitude
• 2:33
  and general kind of policies towards immigrants.
• 2:36
  I'm not going to get into everything here, but these
• 2:39
  protests essentially began a couple weeks ago after ICE
• 2:42
  agents, or as they are officially known, Immigrations
• 2:45
  and Customs Enforcement agents started making arrests all over
• 2:49
  LA after alleged immigration violations.
• 2:52
  Donald Trump did come into office promising to deport
• 2:56
  record numbers of illegal immigrants, which has in time
• 3:00
  put pressure on ICE agents to make arrests whether they are
• 3:03
  warranted or not. But much of these arrests or
• 3:08
  raids as they are being described are also happening in
• 3:11
  public places, which is sowing discontent among the population.
• 3:14
  So that is a very, very high level summary of what is
• 3:18
  happening. I would strongly recommend you
• 3:20
  looking into the protests yourself if this is something
• 3:23
  that you are passionate about or interested in.
• 3:25
  But as you would expect, this has led to a lot of anti ICE
• 3:29
  protests not just in LA but across the country and even in
• 3:33
  the online world. And that is the reason why I
• 3:35
  wanted to touch on this because the way these protests have
• 3:38
  seeped into the digital world, I find super interesting.
• 3:42
  Ever since COVID, we've definitely seen a rise in online
• 3:45
  activism, whether it's people, you know, sharing infographics
• 3:49
  to their Instagram stories or just content from protests that
• 3:53
  they are attending. But there is one form of online
• 3:56
  activism that I feel like is kind of overlooked in the
• 3:59
  discourse, and that is completely online protests in
• 4:03
  gaming platforms like Roblox. So over the past couple of days
• 4:07
  we have seen Roblox users, many of whom are children and
• 4:11
  teenagers, start organizing their own protests on the
• 4:15
  platform. So what this looks like is many
• 4:18
  avatars kind of holding up signs that read anti ICE slogans and
• 4:22
  at the same time there are also players who are pretending to be
• 4:25
  police officers and ICE agents, much how a real protest would
• 4:30
  look in real life. The first time I actually came
• 4:33
  across this story was on Reddit, which linked out to an article
• 4:37
  by the Latin Times, but it's also been circulating on TikTok
• 4:41
  and Taylor Lorenz for user Mag has since covered the story.
• 4:44
  In her piece, Lorenz wrote Quote.
• 4:47
  The ICE protests in Roblox have primarily taken place in
• 4:50
  Brookhaven, a massively multiplayer role-playing
• 4:53
  experience on Roblox. The experience's name is based
• 4:56
  on the real city of Brookhaven, where offline ICE raids and
• 4:59
  protests are also taking place. Now, I think Roblox as a means
• 5:04
  of civic theatre is just so interesting, and that might be
• 5:07
  the political nerd inside of me, but I think it's interesting for
• 5:11
  a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's obviously a way
• 5:14
  for children to participate in protests when they might not be
• 5:17
  allowed to, but secondly, I think it also drives home the
• 5:22
  idea that for Jen Alpha and Jen Said, who are real digital
• 5:25
  natives, that the online and offline world is really one in
• 5:29
  the same. It also shows how this
• 5:31
  demographic have a participatory approach to the news and world
• 5:35
  events, one that I think you could argue is driven by growing
• 5:40
  up online and being able to participate in discourse and
• 5:43
  share your thoughts and opinions on virtually any issue.
• 5:46
  That being said though, this isn't the first time we have
• 5:48
  seen in Roblox protest play out or even in game activism on
• 5:53
  other platforms. When it comes to Roblox
• 5:55
  specifically, we've seen users organized around other topical
• 5:58
  issues, like I remember seeing some around Black Lives Matter
• 6:01
  and even abortion. But of course this isn't limited
• 6:04
  to Roblox. I remember hearing about some
• 6:07
  protests on Club Penguin and even Animal Crossing.
• 6:10
  And in an article for the ABC, Stephen Conway, who is a senior
• 6:14
  lecturer and course director for Games and Interactivity at
• 6:18
  Swinburne University of Technology, told the journalist
• 6:21
  that major historical political events like the 2003 US invasion
• 6:25
  of Iraq prompted in game protests.
• 6:28
  But circling back to the Roblox protests of it all.
• 6:31
  I have seen people poking fun at these protests a little bit
• 6:34
  online, saying that the users don't really know what they're
• 6:37
  participating in and that it kind of devalues the purpose of
• 6:41
  the protests. But I have to say, I think I
• 6:43
  disagree. Well, I definitely think there
• 6:46
  is a chance for misinformation to spread like every other
• 6:50
  online platform. I ultimately think it's a really
• 6:52
  cool way to get young people to clock into politics, civic
• 6:56
  participation, and just Weld events.
• 6:58
  Very early on. When I was doing research for
• 7:00
  this episode, I also came across a brief conference paper that
• 7:05
  went into the efficacy of in game activism, not limited to
• 7:09
  Roblox of course. And the author did note a couple
• 7:12
  benefits of this type of activism and what this kind of
• 7:15
  activism can lead to or be used for.
• 7:18
  So this can be seen as, quote, tools of organization and
• 7:22
  planning, as leveraging support across digital and social
• 7:25
  platforms, as communicating ideas to those inside and
• 7:28
  outside of movements and gesturing towards the potential
• 7:31
  for new civic futures. So yeah, apart from
• 7:33
  participating in democracy and protests, I think in game
• 7:37
  protesting also offers just accessibility and flexibility
• 7:40
  that protests in real life cannot offer.
• 7:42
  But I am definitely interested to hear your thoughts on this
• 7:47
  kind of protesting, whether you think it's useful, whether you
• 7:50
  think we'll see more of it in the future, or even whether
• 7:53
  these games should stay apolitical.
• 7:56
  My next story is that Mid Journey is being sued by Disney
• 8:01
  and Universal for copyright infringement.
• 8:03
  This is being reported on as one of the first legal showdowns
• 8:07
  between Hollywood and generative AI, and I imagine that there
• 8:11
  will be more to come. So Mid Journey, if you're not
• 8:13
  familiar, is an AI tool that generates images for users who
• 8:17
  have a subscription and it was launched back in 2022.
• 8:21
  Disney and Universal's lawsuit though was filed last week in LA
• 8:25
  and takes issue with the fact that Mid Journey is generating
• 8:28
  some of the company's most famous characters without credit
• 8:32
  or any kind of financial compensation as it is written in
• 8:35
  the complaint quote. By helping itself to plaintiff's
• 8:39
  copyrighted works and then distributing images and soon
• 8:42
  video videos that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney's
• 8:45
  and Universals famous characters without investing a penny in
• 8:48
  their creation, Mid Journey is the quintessential copyright
• 8:52
  free rider and bottomless pit of plagiarism.
• 8:55
  Strong language I will say. But in the lawsuit, Disney and
• 8:59
  Universal also allege that Mid Journey uses such copyrighted
• 9:02
  content to market its tools as well as it's written quote.
• 9:07
  Mid Journey also copies and uses plaintiffs copyrighted
• 9:10
  characters to market and promote its image service, encouraging
• 9:14
  even more infringement and falsely implying plaintiffs
• 9:17
  endorsement. As for what Universal and Disney
• 9:20
  are asking for, they are seeking damages in quote an amount,
• 9:24
  according to proof, and have also demanded a jury trial.
• 9:27
  According to reporting that I've seen, the chief executive of Mid
• 9:32
  Journey said that he couldn't really address the quote ongoing
• 9:35
  legal things in a weekly conference call recently when he
• 9:40
  was asked about the future of the company.
• 9:43
  At the end of the day though, while this definitely is a first
• 9:45
  of its kind, this isn't the first time a major company has
• 9:48
  taken legal action against an AI startup.
• 9:51
  I'm sure we all remember how the New York Times sued Open AI and
• 9:55
  Microsoft at the end of 2023, but I could definitely see more
• 9:58
  lawsuits coming the way of AI, especially since that was a
• 10:01
  major issue of the SAG after strikes in 2023.
• 10:04
  OK, that was definitely a quick story, but I have two other
• 10:08
  quick stories that I wanted to add.
• 10:10
  The 1st is that there has been another 90 day extension to the
• 10:13
  TikTok ban in the United States. I physically cannot get into
• 10:17
  this again because I think I virtually mentioned the TikTok
• 10:21
  ban in every single episode of Mini Tech Scroll and I feel like
• 10:25
  you guys are all experts at this point and I also simply just
• 10:27
  cannot bring myself to talk about it.
• 10:29
  But I thought I would drop it in here for your knowledge because
• 10:33
  we have to keep you up to date. It is the third extension since
• 10:36
  January, hence why I can't stop talking about it.
• 10:39
  And the current one I think is set to expire tomorrow or like
• 10:44
  Thursday US time. OK and my last story is a little
• 10:48
  bit of a fun one because these have all kind of being legal
• 10:51
  today and that is that Moshi Monsters, the game many of us
• 10:55
  may have played in our childhoods is making a comeback.
• 10:58
  If you are unfamiliar with this game, Moshi Monsters was a web
• 11:01
  browser multiplayer game. You would basically select a
• 11:04
  monster avatar that you could then customize and then play
• 11:07
  games and interact with others. They also like puzzles.
• 11:10
  From memory. I feel like you can tell a lot
• 11:13
  about a person by which Moshi monster they would choose.
• 11:16
  But that's the conversation for another day.
• 11:18
  At the moment there is a rewritten version of the game
• 11:22
  that people can play, which is essentially A remake.
• 11:24
  But it is looking like there will be an official comeback
• 11:27
  with a fan funded Kickstarter launching with the goal of quote
• 11:30
  bringing back Moshi Monsters in a brand new game.
• 11:33
  From the press release quote, the new game is set to be
• 11:35
  launched in 2027 to mark the 20th anniversary of its
• 11:39
  conception, and we'll pick up after the world of Mushy has
• 11:42
  been destroyed by a mysterious comet, a nod to the game's
• 11:45
  discontinuation, with players tasked with helping to rebuild
• 11:49
  Monstroy City and save the scattered mushlings.
• 11:51
  These words are really taking me back to my childhood right now,
• 11:55
  and I can't say I've thought of Moshi Monsters in many years.
• 12:00
  But we all know how much Gen. Z loves to lean into nostalgia,
• 12:04
  whether it's in trends or in the online world, like playing
• 12:08
  rewritten games. Club Penguin.
• 12:10
  I can't believe I've mentioned Club Penguin twice in this
• 12:13
  episode. That's kind of crazy.
• 12:14
  But if you guys don't remember, Club Penguin skyrocketed in
• 12:17
  popularity at the beginning of Covad.
• 12:20
  I remember like, sitting in my room playing Club Penguin with
• 12:22
  my friends. Like, it was such a weird time.
• 12:24
  It was such a weird time. But yeah, this was a bit of a
• 12:27
  random story to include, but it's a mini tech scroll.
• 12:31
  It's a game. I played Moshi Monsters.
• 12:33
  I was a child, so I felt the need to include it and that you
• 12:36
  guys may enjoy it. OK, those two quick stories
• 12:39
  brings us to our final segment of the podcast for today, which
• 12:43
  is Lauren's interview with two experts about all things safety
• 12:46
  while online dating thanks to Tinder.
• 12:49
  Before we cut to the interview, I thought I would give a quick
• 12:52
  intro for both of the guests. 1st we have Sarah Buzzer who is
• 12:56
  a dating coach and the founder of dating coaching brand
• 13:00
  Sideswiped. Sarah takes a science backed
• 13:02
  approach to help make her clients dating lives easier and
• 13:05
  effortless. She's also Tinder's Aussie
• 13:07
  dating expert. Alongside Sarah we have Yoel
• 13:10
  Roth who is a trust and safety practitioner and researcher.
• 13:14
  He is the senior vice president of Trust and safety at Match
• 13:17
  Group. He is also a non resident
• 13:19
  scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International
• 13:21
  Peace and was previously the head of Trust and Safety at
• 13:24
  Twitter. His research, teaching and
• 13:26
  writing focus on trustworthy governance approaches for social
• 13:30
  media, AI, and other emerging technologies.
• 13:32
  So here's the interview. So welcome Sarah and Yoel.
• 13:36
  Thank you so much. Thanks.
• 13:39
  So for our listeners who are not across who you guys are, can you
• 13:43
  guys give us a quick rundown on what you do, who you are, how
• 13:47
  you're related to Tinder? I'm Yoel.
• 13:49
  I lead the trust and safety team for Match Group, which is the
• 13:52
  parent company of Tinder, Hinge and lots of other dating apps
• 13:56
  around the world, and my job is to make sure that everybody
• 13:59
  who's using our apps has a safe and respectful experience.
• 14:03
  That's a big job. It's definitely a complicated
• 14:05
  one. I love that.
• 14:07
  And Sarah, tell us about you. I'm.
• 14:09
  Sarah, I'm an evidence based dating coach and I'm also the
• 14:13
  local Tinder Aussie dating. Expert I love that Well welcome.
• 14:18
  All right, so we are here today because Tinder is executing an
• 14:22
  exciting pop up at UNSW for Orientation week where students
• 14:26
  who are Tinder users can get ID and photo verified to encourage
• 14:31
  safer online dating experiences with stronger profiles.
• 14:35
  First, can you guys tell us a little bit about why
• 14:38
  verification is so important for young dating app users?
• 14:42
  One of the big things that we've learned from research with our
• 14:44
  users is that people are really looking for ways to know that
• 14:48
  the folks they're connecting with are authentic.
• 14:51
  In fact, from our research with young Aussie daters, we see that
• 14:55
  nearly 70% of folks say that they are looking for a
• 14:58
  verification mark on a profile when they're just deciding if
• 15:01
  they want to match with somebody.
• 15:03
  And so for us, we think verification is a really key way
• 15:06
  that people can trust the profiles that they're
• 15:09
  encountering, get that additional context, and swipe
• 15:12
  with confidence. Absolutely.
• 15:13
  Like we know that amazing connections can happen on dating
• 15:17
  apps, but in order for them to happen, you need to feel like
• 15:20
  you are showing up as your most authentic self.
• 15:22
  And you need to feel safe in order to show up as that version
• 15:26
  of yourself, which makes verification the ultimate green
• 15:29
  flag for trust on dating apps. Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:32
  So this is the second pop up correct that we've had here in
• 15:36
  Sydney? The first was in Bondi.
• 15:38
  Last year, yeah, I love that. So why did you guys decide to
• 15:41
  activate again? Like what were some of the
• 15:42
  results from the first time? Yeah, so it was really great to
• 15:46
  hear from some of the users down in Bondi, help them get their
• 15:51
  professional photos taken. We know that that's a huge pain
• 15:54
  point, especially for men. And it was really great
• 15:57
  personally to walk users through the photo and ID verification
• 16:01
  process and overall just help them elevate their profiles so
• 16:04
  that they can really show up in a confident way and create
• 16:08
  amazing connections. Last year also there was a
• 16:12
  partnership between Tinder and Westnet and it led to over 5000
• 16:17
  newly photo and ID verified users and and almost $5000 in
• 16:22
  donations to West Net, which was really amazing.
• 16:24
  Oh, that's. Cool all right so online safety
• 16:27
  is a huge focus for our Internet culture coverage at Centennial
• 16:31
  world specifically from the perspective of what women deal
• 16:35
  with online what are some of the biggest threats maybe this is
• 16:38
  more directed at UEOL what are some of the biggest threats that
• 16:41
  you see young people face today online let.
• 16:44
  Me talk about the two biggest ones that we see and hear about
• 16:47
  in the research we do with our users.
• 16:50
  The first one is scams. And now I know a lot of people
• 16:53
  and especially young folks think that they would never fall for a
• 16:57
  scam. But all of the data that we see
• 16:59
  is that no matter who you are, how old you are, where you live,
• 17:02
  how how many years of school you've gone through, anybody can
• 17:06
  be susceptible to a scam. And so a huge part of what we
• 17:09
  focus on in our trust and safety work is identifying potential
• 17:14
  fake accounts or scammers and kicking them off our apps as
• 17:17
  quickly as we can. On Tinder, that amounts to more
• 17:20
  than 50 accounts that we remove as being fake every minute.
• 17:24
  So every minute of every day, we are working to keep the accounts
• 17:28
  on Tinder as real and authentic as possible.
• 17:30
  But then the other big area that we focus on, and here is really
• 17:34
  important, particularly for women, is being treated with
• 17:37
  respect when you're talking on the apps.
• 17:39
  And this could be everything from abuse and harassment to
• 17:43
  hate speech to even somebody just kind of coming on a little
• 17:47
  bit too strong in an opening message.
• 17:49
  It's something that's maybe a little bit too sexual or or
• 17:52
  inappropriate. And a huge focus for us is
• 17:54
  keeping those interactions as authentic as possible.
• 17:57
  So how is Tinder slash kind of match group in general?
• 18:01
  How are you guys addressing these?
• 18:03
  I guess to your point, you're removing what you said 50
• 18:07
  accounts a minute. That's right, fake accounts, 50
• 18:10
  per minute, which is, which is a huge number.
• 18:13
  On the safety side, we take a couple of different approaches.
• 18:17
  Obviously, in some cases, if somebody violates our rules,
• 18:20
  there isn't a place for that and we're going to unfortunately
• 18:23
  kick them off of our apps. But one of the things I'm the
• 18:26
  most excited about is a feature called Are you sure?
• 18:30
  And the idea of Are you sure is to prevent harassment before it
• 18:34
  happens by encouraging people to think twice about messages that
• 18:37
  could be inappropriate. And so hundreds of millions of
• 18:41
  times a year, when our AI detects that somebody is writing
• 18:44
  a message that might be a little bit off color, we actually
• 18:49
  prompt them to reconsider. And one in five people who
• 18:52
  receive one of those prompts actually choose not to send that
• 18:55
  message. So this isn't a ban.
• 18:57
  We're not deleting the messages. We're just encouraging people to
• 19:00
  be thoughtful. And we see that it leads to
• 19:02
  meaningfully more respectful interactions.
• 19:05
  Yeah, I love that. So is it like a pop up that asks
• 19:08
  Are you sure you want to on this?
• 19:10
  Exactly. We're not super creative with
• 19:13
  the naming. We saw that we're asking
• 19:15
  somebody, Are you sure you want to do that?
• 19:17
  And that's exactly what the experience is.
• 19:20
  Yeah, Yeah. No, that's good.
• 19:21
  I'm trying to get much better at that.
• 19:23
  I'm like, okay, before I react, just take a pause.
• 19:26
  You know, I'm trying to get a lot better at that.
• 19:28
  So how does Tinder Match Group respond to the growing
• 19:34
  manosphere? And the reason why I ask that is
• 19:36
  we talk a lot about the manosphere here on this podcast
• 19:38
  and how it's impacting women. And we just did a recent really
• 19:42
  big deep dive into it. So I'm interested to hear how
• 19:45
  you guys are kind of considering the manosphere in what you're
• 19:48
  working on. I mean, for us, a lot of this
• 19:51
  comes down to meeting people where they are, understanding
• 19:54
  some of the drivers behind concerns that could lead people
• 19:57
  into the manosphere, and then thinking about how to build
• 20:00
  empathetic and supportive experiences for them.
• 20:04
  Are you sure is a really key part of that, right?
• 20:06
  I think some folks end up going down a bit of a dark path and
• 20:10
  it's because nobody's really taken the time to.
• 20:13
  Offer them coaching and insights about where they could behave
• 20:16
  differently. And it's, it's not just about
• 20:19
  not breaking our rules. Obviously that's something I
• 20:21
  care about as the head of trust and safety, but it's also a way
• 20:24
  especially to teach young men what more respectful and
• 20:28
  ultimately successful dating behavior looks like.
• 20:31
  If our goal is to help you find meaningful connections with
• 20:34
  folks and your pickup lines are alienating the people you're
• 20:38
  trying to match with, then actually it's in everybody's
• 20:40
  interest if we, if we encourage you to reconsider sending some
• 20:44
  of those messages. So there are a lot of
• 20:47
  conflicting opinions on where the onus should lie when it
• 20:51
  comes to online safety and moderation, on the platforms, on
• 20:56
  the lawmakers or on the users. Yoel, where do you see the
• 21:00
  responsibility falling? Is all of the above a cop out?
• 21:03
  No, I feel like that's valid. No, I think everybody has a part
• 21:07
  to play here. And I'd even broaden the net a
• 21:09
  little bit beyond the folks that you named, right?
• 21:11
  So I think foundationally as a company building dating apps, we
• 21:15
  have a basic responsibility to keep the interactions on our
• 21:19
  apps and off of our apps as safe as they possibly can be.
• 21:22
  And so we invest millions of dollars a year in our trust and
• 21:25
  safety work. That's a critical part.
• 21:27
  I think the Australian government and the E safety
• 21:29
  Commissioner have been really forward leaning in thinking
• 21:32
  about the role that regulation can play.
• 21:35
  And that's a really key part as well.
• 21:37
  I think things like requiring companies to provide
• 21:40
  transparency about their actions and to uphold a high standard of
• 21:44
  safety, that's a great role for regulation and government to
• 21:48
  occupy. But then we start to think about
• 21:50
  users themselves. And I would say it's a question
• 21:53
  for the folks on our apps. It's a question for parents and
• 21:56
  teachers. It's a question for everybody,
• 21:59
  whether they're on a dating app or not.
• 22:01
  How do you encourage people to be civil, to be respectful, to
• 22:05
  prioritize things like consent when you're thinking about
• 22:08
  dating and hookups? All of those are things that we
• 22:12
  all can bring to the table. Not when we're on apps, but when
• 22:14
  we're talking with our friends and family members.
• 22:17
  I think there's a responsibility all of us bear in that, in that
• 22:19
  context. Yeah, absolutely.
• 22:22
  And what do you think individual users can do in the meantime to
• 22:27
  safeguard themselves from threats?
• 22:30
  The number one most important thing you can do is report.
• 22:34
  If something happens to you, I hope it never does, but whether
• 22:37
  it's a fake account or you go on a date with somebody and
• 22:39
  something's a little bit off, the most important step you can
• 22:42
  take is report supporting it to us.
• 22:44
  And that ultimately is going to help us not just protect you,
• 22:47
  but protect the entire community of folks on our apps.
• 22:51
  Typically when you submit a report to us, it's going to get
• 22:53
  reviewed and actioned in under 24 hours.
• 22:56
  So this isn't a situation where you submit a report and it goes
• 22:59
  into a black hole. We really prioritize taking
• 23:02
  quick action. One of the things we see in
• 23:04
  research is that there's a systematic under reporting,
• 23:08
  let's call it an epidemic. People have gotten complacent
• 23:12
  and, and ultimately think like it's not worth it to to tell
• 23:15
  somebody. And I'm here to say in the
• 23:17
  context of dating, there is nothing more important for
• 23:20
  keeping yourself and others safe than reporting issues.
• 23:23
  The second thing that I would suggest is verification is a
• 23:27
  really key part of the puzzle. We know that when folks are
• 23:31
  verified, they actually have better dating outcomes.
• 23:33
  So you're more likely to get folks who swipe right on you and
• 23:37
  ultimately to make those connections.
• 23:39
  But it's also a way of knowing that the profiles you're
• 23:41
  interacting with are real and that you're not being catfished
• 23:45
  or scammed. And so I would encourage folks
• 23:48
  to get verified themselves. But then, you know, if you're
• 23:50
  chatting with somebody, you're really hitting it off, maybe use
• 23:54
  that as a moment to say, hey, would you be willing to get
• 23:56
  verified as well so that I can really have that trust before we
• 23:59
  decide to meet up in person? Ultimately, like the concept of
• 24:04
  modern dating has only really been around for 100 years, so
• 24:07
  it's an evolving playbook. So we're all there to have an
• 24:11
  amazing, safe and playful experience.
• 24:14
  So we all just need to educate each other.
• 24:17
  Put in as much information and effort into your profile upfront
• 24:21
  of what you're comfortable with, what your dating goals are, what
• 24:25
  your relationship goals are, so that you're teaching the person
• 24:28
  upfront how they should behave and interact with you.
• 24:31
  And of of course, if anything happens throughout the
• 24:33
  conversation that you're not happy with, of course, report.
• 24:36
  But you know, communication is key.
• 24:38
  Feel like you can say, you know, I'm not really comfortable
• 24:41
  meeting in person yet. Maybe we should have a phone
• 24:43
  call or I'm not really comfortable meeting.
• 24:45
  If you haven't verified your profile yet, again, using it as
• 24:48
  a checkpoint in the conversation.
• 24:49
  So I think we all just again, the responsibility can be on
• 24:52
  everyone, but it can start with yourself and really in your
• 24:56
  profile, how much effort have you put in so that you know
• 24:59
  straight away that you're here for the right reasons, You're
• 25:02
  helping yourself engage in the most meaningful way, and you're
• 25:06
  also teaching others how to engage in the most meaningful
• 25:08
  way. Yeah, helping them set their own
• 25:11
  boundaries, essentially. Yeah, I also love helping people
• 25:14
  create an amazing profile because I think when people see
• 25:17
  examples of that, they're like, oh, I like how that was phrased.
• 25:20
  I could put more effort into mine.
• 25:22
  So it's like paying it forward. Yeah.
• 25:24
  Is that something that you do with your clients?
• 25:25
  Like you help them build dating profiles.
• 25:27
  Absolutely. I mean, unfortunately in life
• 25:30
  and on the apps at first impressions are everything and
• 25:34
  you can set up yourself for the most amazing connections if you
• 25:39
  set up your profile in the right way.
• 25:41
  OK, so we couldn't speak to an expert in the tech space, Yoel
• 25:45
  without asking you about AI. So we've covered AI as more of a
• 25:50
  threat to online safety, especially women's safety when
• 25:54
  you consider things like AI generated content, deep fakes.
• 25:58
  But I assume this is not necessarily the full picture.
• 26:01
  Can you share share your perspective on AI and how or if
• 26:06
  it could be used for good in the case of online safety?
• 26:10
  I think like a lot of technologies, AI can be both a
• 26:13
  force for good and a force for evil.
• 26:15
  And you've touched on some really, really important themes.
• 26:18
  I think the rise of deep fake, non consensual nudity is a
• 26:22
  major, major concern. Match Group has been a part of
• 26:26
  working groups in the United States and around the world
• 26:28
  focused on eradicating these harms.
• 26:30
  So I definitely share the concerns, but I always try to to
• 26:34
  find some kind of upside. And so let me talk about two
• 26:38
  areas where we think AI can be beneficial both for safety and
• 26:42
  then ultimately for the dating experience.
• 26:44
  The 1st when it comes to safety is actually think AI can be
• 26:48
  really transformative in helping us moderate faster, more
• 26:52
  effectively, and with more local nuance.
• 26:54
  Some of the research that we've seen suggests that AI systems
• 26:58
  are really good at translating between languages and helping
• 27:03
  moderators and the people responsible for reviews have
• 27:07
  more context and detail about what it is that they're looking
• 27:10
  at. And so I'm excited about some of
• 27:13
  the work that we're doing across Tinder and our other apps to
• 27:16
  expand where we're using generative AI as part of our
• 27:20
  moderation. And that doesn't mean taking
• 27:22
  humans out of the picture, doesn't mean making and worse
• 27:25
  decisions or cheaper decisions means making better decisions
• 27:29
  using more robust information. But then I think on the subject
• 27:32
  of how AI can help people be better daters, there's a ton of
• 27:36
  areas where we think that AI systems can ultimately help
• 27:39
  people build better profiles. For example, on Tinder, we have
• 27:43
  an AI photo selector that helps with personally, my least
• 27:46
  favorite part of the dating experience, which is finding a
• 27:48
  picture of myself that I don't hate.
• 27:51
  And so you can share access to your photo library on Tinder and
• 27:56
  AI can pick the photos that we think are going to get you the
• 27:58
  most right swipes, which is exciting.
• 28:02
  AI can also help people respond better to profile prompts on
• 28:06
  Hinge where you know, if you write about yourself, like I
• 28:09
  like food and music like that doesn't really give anybody
• 28:13
  anything to go on. Maybe there's some ways that you
• 28:15
  could express some more details about your your most unique self
• 28:19
  and that'll really help people find connection.
• 28:22
  I think AI can be absolutely amazing at helping people find
• 28:26
  the best ways to express themselves.
• 28:28
  I'm a big fan of the photo selected tool as well.
• 28:30
  Like you said, it is such a big pain point and what tends to
• 28:33
  happen is someone will come to Tinder for the first time with
• 28:37
  so much enthusiasm, and as they're then trying to sort
• 28:40
  through their camera roll, they get a bit self-conscious and
• 28:43
  they end up just initiating their profile with one or two
• 28:46
  photos. And that's such a shame because
• 28:49
  you really want to show someone as much of your personality as
• 28:53
  much as your lifestyle as possible.
• 28:55
  So instead of having that hesitation that could cause you
• 28:58
  incredible opportunities, you can just use the tool.
• 29:02
  It is so helpful and you'll get an answer so much quicker than
• 29:05
  sending photos to your group chat.
• 29:07
  I love that. So finally, I'd like to hear
• 29:10
  from both of you. How can we make the online
• 29:14
  dating world safer? You know, it's a little bit of a
• 29:17
  cliche, but I always go back to the golden rule.
• 29:19
  Treat others how you want to be treated.
• 29:22
  And especially when it comes to dating, dating's super personal.
• 29:26
  I think people have different likes, dislikes, preferences.
• 29:29
  People are looking for different things at different moments in
• 29:32
  their life. But foundationally, everybody
• 29:34
  wants to be treated with respect.
• 29:36
  And everybody wants to know that when they take that step of
• 29:39
  trusting somebody, of meeting face to face, that they can be
• 29:42
  confident going into that interaction that they're going
• 29:45
  to be treated with respect. That consent is going to be at
• 29:48
  the heart of every one of those interactions.
• 29:50
  And ultimately, we all need to bring to the table the vibes
• 29:53
  that we're looking for from others.
• 29:55
  And so I think showing up as your best self, showing up with
• 29:59
  a mindset of respect is something that every one of us
• 30:02
  can do as we're on the apps and, and frankly as we go through our
• 30:05
  lives. Totally, it's just having so
• 30:07
  much more empathy for others. No one was born knowing how to
• 30:11
  date. One of the best reasons we use
• 30:13
  dating apps is because we can connect with so many people,
• 30:16
  bridging so many cultures, meeting people you never
• 30:19
  otherwise would have, but also knowing that means that there
• 30:22
  are going to be different cultural nuances and that
• 30:25
  communication then should be at the heart of all of your
• 30:28
  interactions. Yes, this makes me feel safe.
• 30:30
  No, this doesn't make me feel safe.
• 30:33
  You have to speak up for yourself, and getting verified
• 30:37
  on the apps is going to mean a much safer experience for you
• 30:39
  and for others because they also know that you are who you say
• 30:43
  you are. Amazing.
• 30:44
  Thank you both so much. Thank you.
• 30:47
  Anyway, that is everything from me today.
• 30:50
  I hope you enjoyed the interview and the insights offered by Yoel
• 30:53
  and Sarah. I thought they were super
• 30:55
  interesting. And thank you again to Tinder
• 30:58
  for sponsoring this week's episode of Mini Text Scroll.
• 31:01
  Once again, hope you enjoyed the episode.
• 31:04
  I will see you next Wednesday, hopefully a little bit more in
• 31:07
  the swing of things and Lauren will speak to you tomorrow.
• 31:11
  Thanks. Bye.