Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: Fandom search startup raises $1M, 4chan dodges teen social media ban + viral AI intruder trend

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MINI TECH SCROLL: Fandom search startup raises $1M, 4chan dodges teen social media ban + viral AI intruder trend · Mini Scroll

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  This episode of Mini Tech Scroll is brought to you by Blackbird,
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  a venture capital firm investing in Aussie and Kiwi startups From
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  the very beginning. Blackbird invests in all kinds
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  of technology, so if you have a big idea but need to raise
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  investment to turn it into reality, learn more and connect
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  with the Blackbird team through the link in our show notes.
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  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll.
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  The daily Internet culture podcast bring you the biggest
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  stories from social media, the creator economy, and the digital
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  space every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
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  host and also the deputy editor of the youth digital media brand
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  Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Tech Scroll
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  for another week. I don't really have too many
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  updates, but Please remember to rate, review and subscribe and
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  star rate US on Spotify specifically because we are on
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  the journey to 1000 star ratings.
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  We also have a buy me a coffee link in our description if you
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  want to check that out. But let's just get straight into
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  the content today. I really don't have too much to
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  say at the top of this week's episode.
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  The first story I wanted to talk about today is a little bit more
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  of a fun one. I wanted to discuss this new
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  platform that is launching called Lore.
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  I came across it from the Please Don't Make Me Focus newsletter.
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  If you guys haven't checked that out, you really should.
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  It is one of my favorites and we've also actually highlighted
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  it in our newsletter series. Keep scrolling, for which you
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  should also be subscribed to if you aren't already.
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  But anyway, a young woman named Zara, who is a former VC and now
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  actually a founder and writer of the newsletter Z List, is
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  building a platform called Law, which is billed as a company
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  that is trying to make fandom fun again.
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  According to the platform's Instagram account, this is the
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  law behind the Law quote. Being a fan used to be fun, but
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  today, fandom discovery is scattered across multiple
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  platforms, disorganized threads, hostile forms, and outdated
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  wikis. We take all the law you seek
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  from your favorite stories and interests and put it all in one
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  unorganized, intuitive, and customizable space.
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  The online fan experience is fragmented, toxic, and broken.
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  Law is going to fix it. In conversations with various
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  media outlets, Sarah explains that growing up in the 20 tens
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  as a fangirl feels almost easier back then than it does today.
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  Since everything is so fragmented online, I like.
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  To say Lore is the Internet curated for the obsessed.
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  And the way that I really think about that is when it comes to
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  my experience being a fangirl on the Internet in the 20 10s
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  versus now, it's almost weirdly harder to be a fan.
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  I think information is diluted and fragmented when I watch a
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  new TV show or I'm obsessed with a new book, I Google, let's say
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  like, OK, the secret history by Donna Tart and then I'll have to
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  go through like a whole Reddit thread, parse through everyone's
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  opinions. Then I go on TikTok and maybe
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  find a couple videos that resonate and it's just this
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  whole fragmented experience and then I will never get
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  information about the secret history again because there's no
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  platform that will give me that. So Lore for me was born out of
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  this frustration of I love following people, I love
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  following my friends, I love social media and obviously I
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  love content. But I was just really frustrated
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  with the fact that there was no place for me to just follow my
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  fandoms, follow topics that interested me.
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  And so lore eventually, when we get the product out, is really
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  going to kind of feel like a place where you're able to fall
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  down that Internet rabbit hole the way you might have as a.
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  Kid So basically Lore kind of feels like it will be a
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  compilation slash mixture of Reddit and stand Twitter in one
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  place, making it easier to follow anything that you were
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  obsessed with online, which is definitely intriguing to me as a
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  longtime fangirl myself. In a conversation with
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  TechCrunch, Zara explained that Law is a quote attempt to
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  rebuild the Library of Alexandria for the fandom age.
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  Which is so dramatic, but I love it.
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  The platform will build quote personalized graphs of
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  obsessions and will also provide fandom and Stan updates in a
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  feed, as well as give monthly reports to users about any
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  updates within their various obsessions.
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  Now Law hasn't been aren't hard launched yet, but they do have a
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  TikTok, Instagram and X at the time of recording and if you go
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  to the LAW website you can actually sign up for early
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  entry. That being said, they have been
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  doing product testing as they're a told TechCrunch quote.
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  We wrapped up an experiment with over 1000 logins, nearly 24,000
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  searches and a collective 8 days or about 200 hours of spiralling
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  deep into obsessions, which is my dream.
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  Honestly, I would love to do that, but to be fair that is
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  also kind of my job. When I do the deep dives, I
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  will. There is definitely some
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  competition in this space. In the piece for TechCrunch,
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  once again, the journalist compared Law to AI search
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  engines like Perplexity, while also noting that it has a
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  similar function to Reddit or Wikipedia.
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  I think other comparisons could definitely be drawn to Fandom
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  Wikia pages, as well as apps like Arca, which exists to
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  curate your own Internet. But Law does have a specific
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  point of view with the Fandom focus.
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  I do think what is especially interesting to me about all of
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  this is that Laura's already raised 1.1 million in a PRECEDE
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  funding, which is like the foundational round of investment
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  when a startup is just kind of getting off the ground.
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  Receiving 1.1 million definitely shows confidence in the concept,
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  which I think is super fascinating because fandom
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  culture and fangirls have so long been stigmatized and
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  underappreciated and undervalued.
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  Even though fandom is obviously what drives pop culture and is a
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  very, very lucrative space. I have spent a lot of money on
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  some of my obsessions. I can say that from experience.
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  But I also think it's interesting because we seem to
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  be seeing more and more Internet culture adjacent companies
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  getting substantial investment. For example, last week I
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  actually came across news from Meme Lord Technologies, which is
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  a meme identification and generation company, where they
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  announced a recent $3,000,000 seed round.
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  So obviously with Centennial being an Internet culture media
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  company, we love to see the enthusiasm around these spaces.
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  I also do think, though, that law specifically goes to show
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  how far away we are from the monocultural experience of pop
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  culture, where people are just so eager to personalize their
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  feeds. Or at least that's what creators
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  and founders and experts think consumers want.
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  Whether this era of pop culture or content consumption has more
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  pros and cons, I feel like it's still too early to say, even
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  though this has been our reality for a while now, because there's
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  definitely benefits to be able to find like minded people and
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  communities that you resonate with.
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  But of course, it can create polarization and not promote
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  understanding between different groups.
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  But I don't know, there's a lot to think about with that, let's
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  move on to the next story for today.
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  And I wanted to give a little bit of an update on the
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  Australian under 16 social media ban quote UN quote that is set
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  to come into force really soon in December of this year.
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  We'll cover this a couple times by this point.
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  This social media ban and the TikTok ban and AI slop is really
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  the bread and butter of this podcast.
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  But for those of you who aren't necessarily familiar with the
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  Australian context, last year legislation passed through
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  parliament that was essentially going to set a minimum age for
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  social media, including platforms like Snapchat, TikTok,
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  Facebook, Instagram and X. It looks like YouTube will
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  actually be included in the ban, which is something I reported on
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  previously. And this has been very
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  controversial to say the least, because YouTube can obviously be
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  used as a educational tool where it doesn't necessarily see
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  itself as a social media network like the other platforms.
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  So YouTube has been pushing for an exemption, arguing that
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  forcing children to use YouTube without an account, which might
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  be a way to get around the ban, will ultimately end up taking
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  away parental controls that they would have otherwise if they had
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  an account. And funnily enough, they also
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  pointed to various Australian success stories like Troy Sivan
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  off the platform. And here they argued that the
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  ban would be quite limiting in terms of possible careers, which
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  I definitely think is a fair take, But it's just funny to see
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  Toy Sivan in this context because I've literally watched
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  him since he started YouTube. But more broadly, there's
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  obviously been a lot of conversation around the ban.
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  Some people think it's a really good idea and necessary because
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  it can protect young people and their mental health.
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  Others feels like it's taking away a socialization tool and
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  will ultimately compromise freedom and Australian
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  children's understanding of technology as it develops.
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  And of course, as I've spoken about before on this podcast,
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  there's been a lot of questions about whether this under 16's
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  quote UN quote ban is even technologically possible.
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  But one update that I specifically wanted to talk
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  about today is that I've been seeing discourse around talking
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  about how 4 Chan is reportedly not expected to be included in
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  the ban. Australia's E safety
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  commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who leads Australia's regulator
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  for online safety for context, was recently asked about 4 Chan
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  and whether it will be included in the ban.
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  Inman Grant initially said that it wouldn't be given that it is
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  quote UN quote an image board. She also said that the focus at
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  this stage is more mainstream social media sites and that 4
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  Chan would potentially come later.
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  According to reporting from the Guardian.
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  Quote officials later clarified that E safety has not undertaken
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  a formal assessment of 4 Chan, but said there was a risk based
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  approach taken in assessing the platforms the band would apply
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  to, focusing on those with a significant presence in
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  Australia and a significant number of young users and key
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  features that fit the definition in the legislation.
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  Ever since this conversation took place, there's been a lot
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  of discussion around whether 4 Chan should be included in the
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  ban. Some people have noted that it
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  would be quite difficult to monitor given that you actually
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  don't need to register to really be on the platform.
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  But others have found that 4 Chan not being part of the
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  immediate conversation to be very interesting considering
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  what goes on on that platform. 4 Chan is widely considered the
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  home of the alt right online and has been involved in instigating
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  real life violence and harassment, including playing a
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  pretty big role in Gamergate. With 4 Chan seemingly being
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  excluded from the band for the time being, this has made
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  Australians even more skeptical about how effective the band
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  will actually be because 4 Chan, arguably one of the most harmful
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  online spaces, isn't at the front of mind.
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  I thought I would just read some comments from Reddit so you guys
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  could hear some of the reactions and the discourse that is going
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  on at the moment. In a response to a post talking
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  about the Guardian article, 1 user wrote quote.
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  This absolutely defeats the purpose.
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  I look after vulnerable kids and the amount that have maladaptive
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  thinking habits often use forms like 4 Chan think Nazi like
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  beliefs, alpha male like beliefs etcetera.
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  They should not be on it. Another user kind of pushed back
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  on this, adding quote. The root of many of our problems
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  is the content engagement algorithms associated with
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  mainstream social media. As it turns out, outrage,
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  hatred, drama, and addiction drive engagement far more than
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  anything that's actually productive for society.
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  So that's what the algorithm steers people towards.
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  Fortune though it is a whole other bucket of worms, which
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  isn't actually the saying, but I get it.
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  I like it. Interestingly, this conversation
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  about the efficacy of the ban and what it actually represents
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  has also come off the back of reports of teens talking about
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  how they are going to thwart the ban on TikTok.
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  Cam Wilson, who's actually been on Infinite Squad before Lauren
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  has interviewed him, but he published an article about all
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  of this which I will link into the description in case you want
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  to learn more. Anyway though, I'm definitely
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  curious to hear what you guys think about 4 Chan not being
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  included in the ban. It is definitely a dangerous
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  place for people to be and that isn't limited to children.
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  The last thing I wanted to talk about today was actually a story
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  that a listener named Anna mentioned in a comment on
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  Spotify last week, and that is about the TikTok trend going
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  around that is of an AI generated image of a person
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  experiencing homelessness. If you guys haven't seen this
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  trend, I'll explain it for you and I'll also insert some videos
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  on the screen. But it's basically when someone
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  takes a picture of their house and then drops it in an AI image
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  generation tool and asks the tool to insert someone who
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  appears to be experiencing homelessness into the photo.
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  I've seen some where the person then texts their parents or
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  their housemates, causing the people that they're texting to
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  stress. These exchanges have racked up
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  millions of views on Ted Talk, which obviously prompts other
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  users to follow suit, hoping that they will go viral
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  themselves. And since this trend has gained
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  popularity, they've actually been reports across the world of
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  law enforcement asking people to stop with these so-called
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  pranks, noting that it is wasting resources as police have
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  had to show up at various people's houses for this prank.
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  The reason I wanted to talk about this though is not
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  necessarily because of that. It's because I think we're
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  seeing a concerning trend with these AI driven trends.
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  I mentioned this last week with the AI generated Jake Paul
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  videos, but these trends often end up using marginalized groups
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  or minorities as the punchline with the Jake Paul content.
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  So many of the viral clips leaned into various queer Jewish
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  or Muslim stereotypes to the point where it kind of stopped
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  being about Jake Paul and started being about reinforcing
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  harmful caricatures of these different groups.
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  And according to the comments under some of these videos, that
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  is what made these videos funny. We also saw the same thing a
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  couple of months ago with the slew of AI generated content of
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  black women, which I covered as well.
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  And arguably this trend feels like the same thing.
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  It's dehumanizing people who are already vulnerable.
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  I saw one comment that I think really gets to this point and
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  the user wrote quote. The joke seems to be haha you
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  almost thought I was kind enough to care about a homeless person.
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  Obviously it was a prank lol. I don't know, call me to woke,
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  but I just, I just feel like people aren't talking about this
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  side of the trends enough. We often hear a lot of
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  conversation around stealing someone's likeness, which is
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  obviously a very important thing to discuss and raise awareness
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  about, but I don't know if it's just me.
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  I haven't seen so many people talking about these undertones
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  and how these AI videos are reinforcing certain stereotypes
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  and I just don't understand why. Like I feel like it's right
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  there. Anyway, that is everything from
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  Mini Tech Scroll today. I hope you guys enjoyed.
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  Lauren will speak to you guys tomorrow and I will see you next
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  week. Thank you so much for listening.
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  Bye.