Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: Grok undressing update, the end of Etsy witches, viral 140-year-long video & Instagram scam fears

Transcript

MINI TECH SCROLL: Grok undressing update, the end of Etsy witches, viral 140-year-long video & Instagram scam fears · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:03
  culture podcast bring the biggest stories from social
• 0:06
  media, the creator economy, and the digital space every Monday
• 0:10
  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
• 0:12
  My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
• 0:15
  host and also the deputy editor of the youth digital media brand
• 0:18
  Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Tech
• 0:21
  Scroll. To start off this week, I have
• 0:24
  to say a big thank you to everyone who has been
• 0:26
  recommending us on Reddit this week.
• 0:29
  I literally say it all the time, but I really do spend a decent
• 0:33
  amount of time sleuthing through Reddit to see what you guys are
• 0:36
  saying about Centennial World's podcast.
• 0:38
  And I know Lauren has already spoken about this, but we have
• 0:41
  gotten an influx of new subscribers.
• 0:43
  So very warm welcome to everyone.
• 0:46
  But because of that, I also thought I would give a little
• 0:49
  bit of an intro to Mini Tech Scroll.
• 0:52
  It's probably also about time because a year ago tomorrow was
• 0:55
  the first episode of Mini Tech Scroll ever.
• 0:58
  So for those who are new, obviously mini scroll is where
• 1:02
  you go if you want to get the Internet drama and T, but mini
• 1:06
  tech scroll is a little bit different where we tend to focus
• 1:09
  a little bit more on the social media platforms themselves, who
• 1:13
  runs them and what that might mean for users.
• 1:17
  I think it's really important when we're talking about
• 1:19
  Internet culture to consider where all the drama and the
• 1:24
  culture, I guess, is taking place, where it is really
• 1:27
  important to pay attention to how these platforms change over
• 1:31
  time and exactly how they operate, because that directly
• 1:34
  feeds into why we see what we see.
• 1:37
  And I do think that's missing quite often in conversations
• 1:41
  around Internet culture. I do think Internet culture
• 1:44
  journalism and tech journalism are quite intertwined.
• 1:48
  So in the Centennial world cinematic universe, I do like to
• 1:52
  think of mini tech as giving the context to really be able to
• 1:57
  analyze and be critical of the culture that has developed
• 2:01
  online at any given time. And unfortunately, that means I
• 2:05
  do think some of the stories we cover are a bit grim, but I
• 2:08
  really do try my best to make sure that we have some fun ones
• 2:12
  here and there. Well, that is basically the mini
• 2:14
  tech scroll blab. If that doesn't sound like
• 2:16
  something you're into, come back tomorrow because Lauren will be
• 2:19
  back for a regular episode of Mini scroll.
• 2:22
  And my last thing before we get into the stories this week,
• 2:26
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 2:29
  And if you want to potentially be featured in our close Friends
• 2:32
  newsletter going out this week, we have a piece of content for
• 2:35
  you guys to share your thoughts on and I will link it in the
• 2:38
  description. And Lauren also spoke about it
• 2:40
  yesterday. OK, let's get into the stories.
• 2:43
  The first thing I need to cover this week is an update, and that
• 2:46
  is regarding everything that has gone down with Croc.
• 2:49
  So I covered this last week, but I will give a quick summary in
• 2:53
  case you missed it. But basically Croc, which is the
• 2:56
  AI on X, is being widely criticized for a new feature
• 2:59
  that is being introduced. Essentially the feature allows a
• 3:02
  user to edit any photo and if there is a person in the photo,
• 3:06
  they do not need the permission or consent to edit them.
• 3:10
  I'm sure you can guess where this is going, but soon people
• 3:14
  started using the feature for nefarious reasons, including
• 3:19
  undressing people most of the time being women, and even
• 3:22
  sometimes girls. I'm not going to describe any of
• 3:25
  the content beyond that because obviously it is unconsensual and
• 3:29
  it's also just horrific to see. But unfortunately, I do think
• 3:33
  this is just another example of how when new technology emerges,
• 3:38
  it doesn't take long for people, often men, to weaponize it
• 3:43
  against women and girls. So aside from the fact that it
• 3:46
  is just another representation of misogyny and it is very
• 3:49
  harmful, many social media users and commentators were
• 3:53
  disappointed in Exes and Elon Musk's response, which was
• 3:57
  pretty much nothing. And that is kind of where we got
• 4:00
  up to last week. So since then there have been a
• 4:03
  couple of notable updates, 1st that were reports of the feature
• 4:07
  had become restricted to paid users, which was interesting
• 4:11
  because that's not really stopping this quote UN quote
• 4:14
  trend from continuing where now it is just relegated to a
• 4:18
  specific group of users. But basically free tea users
• 4:23
  were trying to ask Rock by tagging at Grok in a tweet to
• 4:27
  create or edit images on the platform for them.
• 4:30
  And users who were trying to do this were actually hit by an
• 4:34
  automated response. The tweet posted from Grok read
• 4:37
  Quote The image generation feature was limited to paying
• 4:40
  subscribers due to concerns over misuse, including the creation
• 4:44
  of non consensual sexualized imagery.
• 4:47
  As reported in recent coverage. XAI hasn't issued a formal
• 4:50
  statement on additional steps to protect women, but we're
• 4:53
  committed to responsible AI development.
• 4:55
  For more, check XAI updates. Many people have found this to
• 5:00
  be a less than optimal response. Like I just mentioned, it
• 5:04
  doesn't actually really stop this trend from continuing, but
• 5:07
  also because Grok is still able to create these images, X is
• 5:12
  essentially profiting off it by making it seem exclusive to paid
• 5:16
  users. I should also add here though
• 5:19
  before we continue that the vouch has made it clear that the
• 5:22
  automated message is a little bit deceiving.
• 5:25
  As Robert Hart reports quote, the message gives the impression
• 5:28
  that only paid X users can edit or create images using Grok, but
• 5:32
  that depression is false. All ex users, including free
• 5:36
  ones, can still use Grok to edit and create images, including the
• 5:40
  sexually suggestive deepfakes that landed Grok in hot water to
• 5:43
  begin with. He continues by noting that the
• 5:47
  edit image button that shows up when you click the like 3 little
• 5:50
  dots on any post allows users to still quote UN quote imagine
• 5:55
  with Grok. So that is put in a prompt and
• 5:58
  Grok will adjust the image. I will say I did test this
• 6:02
  myself. I didn't obviously test out the
• 6:04
  sexual component because I'm not adding to this problem, but I
• 6:08
  could edit an image myself and I am not a paid user.
• 6:12
  So with the ability to still edit pictures with Grok, many
• 6:17
  social media users and commentators have argued that
• 6:20
  this is just an attempt to make it seem like X is doing
• 6:23
  something or to kind of take away these edited images from
• 6:27
  the public sphere. But it's still happening in
• 6:30
  private conversations with the bot, so it's not really
• 6:34
  contributing to any solution aside from the paid users of it
• 6:39
  all. The next major update is that
• 6:41
  governments across the world are starting to take action or put
• 6:44
  in place necessary steps to take action against X.
• 6:48
  With this, there have been calls across the world to ban Croc and
• 6:53
  even X, and I'll get into some of the samples.
• 6:55
  So both Malaysia and Indonesia have already blocked rock, both
• 6:59
  pointing to the generation of this pornographic material as
• 7:03
  unacceptable and unsafe. Since this has taken place,
• 7:07
  there have been growing calls across the UK and in Australia,
• 7:10
  for example, to do something about this feature.
• 7:13
  The UK Office of Communications, or Ofcom for short, has launched
• 7:17
  an investigation against X. It is examining X under 2023's
• 7:22
  Online Safety Act, which I feel like we may have discussed
• 7:25
  before. But anyway, from this act there
• 7:27
  are a number of possible punitive measures including
• 7:30
  fines, up to 10% of X's worldwide revenue if it is found
• 7:35
  to be in violation of the ACT. In Australia, a similar thing is
• 7:39
  happening. So the E Safety Commissioner,
• 7:42
  which is Australia's independent online safety regulator, has
• 7:45
  started to take action where quote E Safety has written to X
• 7:49
  seeking further information about the safeguards in place to
• 7:52
  prevent drugs misuse on its service and to comply with these
• 7:55
  obligations, according to a press release.
• 7:58
  I will say that there has been some backlash to the UK and
• 8:02
  Australia's approaches, for example, because people don't
• 8:05
  believe that the government is acting quick enough to protect
• 8:08
  women and young girls. And I also should quickly
• 8:12
  mention the US here. I don't think we can expect the
• 8:15
  US to follow suit because as we know, X as a platform is
• 8:20
  extremely important to the current administration.
• 8:22
  It has been said that the current administration relies on
• 8:25
  it for kind of gauging public opinion, even though that's not
• 8:28
  accurate by any means. And of course, who's to say that
• 8:31
  the White House or the administration would even put
• 8:34
  this as a priority because they do post AI generated content
• 8:38
  quite frequently. And that finally brings us to
• 8:41
  the last update. And that is that Elon Musk has
• 8:44
  kind of responded to the calls to ban X specifically in the UK.
• 8:49
  So in a series of tweets, he kind of insinuates that the UK
• 8:52
  is fascist for considering banning X and is ultimately
• 8:56
  seeking to limit free speech. So he's done the classic thing
• 9:00
  if you've ever looked on Elon Musk's X profile where he
• 9:03
  literally just responds like one word to polarizing tweets.
• 9:08
  So he responded quote UN quote, wow to a tweet that read quote
• 9:12
  just in the UK has now arrested more than 12,000 people for free
• 9:16
  speech online. Obviously, we know that Elon
• 9:18
  Musk is very sensitive to the freedom of speech, which is
• 9:22
  literally why he acquired the platform.
• 9:24
  If you guys remember, he was really critical of the decisions
• 9:27
  that the platform had made prior to him, like banning Donald
• 9:31
  Trump, seeing them as censorship, and that it skewed
• 9:35
  the political disc. Of course, there is of course a
• 9:37
  time and place to be worried about free speech online.
• 9:40
  This is something that many users are increasingly worried
• 9:42
  about, leading to the use of algospeak on platforms like
• 9:46
  TikTok for example. But Grok undressing women and
• 9:49
  mine is quite literally is not a free speech issue.
• 9:53
  It is misogyny and it is extremely harmful.
• 9:56
  As I've said multiple times by this point.
• 9:58
  I thought this piece by the tech policy press put it well.
• 10:01
  I'll read you a quote from it. AI developers, tech companies,
• 10:04
  social media platforms and regulators must treat non
• 10:07
  consensual sexualized imagery as a design level risk, not a
• 10:11
  downstream moderation problem. Platforms must block the
• 10:14
  creation of a nudified and sexualized content involving
• 10:17
  real people, especially children by default.
• 10:20
  Invest in detection and reporting systems that work for
• 10:23
  non public figures and center consent and child protection at
• 10:26
  every stage of model development and deployment.
• 10:29
  Okay, that brings us to our next story on the social media
• 10:32
  platform side of things. There has been this scam
• 10:35
  happening with Meta Instagram specifically.
• 10:38
  We don't usually cover scams or anything of that nature, but I
• 10:40
  felt like this one was significant.
• 10:42
  But basically over the past week or so, many Instagram users have
• 10:47
  reported receiving requests from Instagram to change their
• 10:50
  passwords, but they did not submit this request.
• 10:53
  I actually received this e-mail, I think two or three times.
• 10:56
  And obviously when an e-mail comes through like this and you
• 11:00
  don't request it, it is very sauce.
• 11:02
  But I will say that this e-mail looked so legit.
• 11:05
  It was from security@mail.instagram.com,
• 11:09
  which I believe is legit. For example, if you log into
• 11:12
  your Instagram from a different device, this is the e-mail that
• 11:16
  you will receive it from anyway. I saw a lot of users take to the
• 11:20
  platform to warn their followers not to click on the link in the
• 11:23
  e-mail, saying that this is one of the most realistic scams
• 11:27
  ever. And these users were also
• 11:29
  sharing tips on how to check if there are any other people
• 11:32
  logged into your account, as well as insight into how to
• 11:34
  check if Instagram has tried to contact you through e-mail.
• 11:38
  There were a lot of questions, obviously, around how this
• 11:41
  happened and whether it was actually a scam.
• 11:44
  Malwarebytes, which is an antivirus software company,
• 11:47
  offered one explanation. According to a blog post on
• 11:50
  their website as well as some social media posts, the company
• 11:54
  alleged that cybercriminals stole the sensitive information
• 11:57
  of 17.5 million Instagram users. As the blog post on their
• 12:01
  website reads quote. Around the same time that users
• 12:04
  began receiving these emails, a cybercriminal using the handle
• 12:08
  Solo Nic offered data that allegedly contains information
• 12:11
  about 17,000,000 Instagram users for sale on a dark web forum.
• 12:16
  I should note here that according to the BBC's coverage
• 12:20
  of this, there were some questions around Malwarebytes
• 12:23
  claim noting that quote. Some security researchers think
• 12:27
  this is actually an old database that was gathered from data
• 12:30
  which could be publicly viewed, such as name and location in
• 12:34
  2022. Obviously, the timing of all
• 12:37
  this led many social media users to believe that Instagram was
• 12:41
  suffering from a major data breach similar to the one that
• 12:44
  happened to the T app last year. But Instagram has since come out
• 12:48
  to deny that these events were related, where they explained
• 12:52
  that quote. We fixed an issue to let an
• 12:55
  external party request password reset emails for some people.
• 12:59
  There was no breach of our systems and your Instagram
• 13:01
  accounts are secure. So I've been scrolling through
• 13:03
  Reddit as I do to see what people are thinking about the
• 13:07
  whole situation. And the common sentiment on the
• 13:10
  R slash cybersecurity subreddit seems to be that users are
• 13:13
  acknowledging that the 2 events are separate, being the emails
• 13:17
  and the accessible user data on the dark web.
• 13:20
  But they're also noting that by fixing the password reset
• 13:23
  glitch, it isn't actually solving the privacy issue.
• 13:26
  I'm curious, did you guys receive this e-mail?
• 13:28
  Because I, I was definitely spooked when I did.
• 13:31
  OK, I have two more short stories that are a little bit
• 13:34
  more fun because this episode has been slightly grim and we
• 13:38
  need to balance that out a little bit.
• 13:40
  So the next one I have is that there is seemingly this 140 year
• 13:45
  long YouTube video that is being a pushed out to users on the
• 13:48
  platform. So the video was uploaded by a
• 13:51
  channel named Shiny WR at the start of January.
• 13:55
  The video is quite literally just a black screen, and while
• 13:58
  the duration tag on the thumbnail is long, it is
• 14:02
  actually only 12 hours when you click on the video, which is
• 14:05
  also long, but not 140 years long.
• 14:07
  And at the time of recording, it is sitting at 3.3 million views,
• 14:11
  which is only nine days after it's been uploaded.
• 14:14
  As you would expect, many YouTube users are confused by
• 14:18
  the video, partly because it's 140 years long.
• 14:22
  It's just a black screen. The title of the video is just a
• 14:24
  question mark, but they are most confused by how the user managed
• 14:29
  to upload it. And to make matters even more
• 14:32
  confusing, very little is known about the channel or who is
• 14:35
  behind it. So the very little information
• 14:38
  that we do have comes from the YouTube channel's about section.
• 14:42
  And it does say that the channel is based in North Korea, which
• 14:45
  is odd because we know that the government heavily senses
• 14:48
  Internet access. So this has led many users to
• 14:52
  believe that the person who is running the channel isn't
• 14:54
  actually based there and is just kind of some edgy quote UN quote
• 14:58
  troll. In the bio of the channel.
• 15:00
  They've also linked a way back machine link that shows you a
• 15:03
  YouTube playlist of 5000 videos with the description quote a
• 15:07
  playlist used to archive the 1.7 billion hour video because
• 15:12
  YouTube keeps deleting it. Also the longest playlist to
• 15:15
  ever exist on YouTube. As much as many viewers are
• 15:18
  confused by what this represents or what the meaning of all this
• 15:22
  is to be found, it doesn't have to have a meaning.
• 15:24
  Not everything online does. But many users have found it
• 15:27
  really funny and have gone on to comment that this is the type of
• 15:30
  video that YouTube will recommend randomly in like 10
• 15:33
  years. Which is so classic.
• 15:35
  I feel like I've gotten the randomness recommendations from
• 15:38
  like 16 years ago and I'm like, OK, thanks for that, I guess.
• 15:42
  But yeah, that's a bit of a random story, but we needed a
• 15:45
  fun one. And it just goes to show, I
• 15:47
  think, how much Internet uses love and anomaly.
• 15:50
  It's so easy these days on the major social media platforms for
• 15:53
  everything to be the same. So love, a bit of a surprise.
• 15:56
  Speaking of surprises, this is a surprising story for me to
• 16:00
  include in mini tech scroll. But my final story for today is
• 16:04
  that we need this whole about what is going on with the Etsy
• 16:07
  witches. That sounds a little bit silly,
• 16:09
  but let's get into it. OK, so this really all started
• 16:13
  with a tick tock by a user named Carol J.
• 16:16
  And in it she spoke about how Etsy is suspending Etsy witches.
• 16:21
  We all know what Etsy witches are by this point.
• 16:23
  It's kind of in the name. But if you are not on this side
• 16:26
  of the Internet, these are people who offer paid spiritual
• 16:30
  services like casting spells or offering good luck charms or
• 16:34
  even classes. And obviously this is happening
• 16:37
  on Etsy and they've become really popular on spiritual
• 16:41
  talk, witch talk, all that side of the Internet over the past
• 16:44
  few years. But Etsy witches famously or I
• 16:48
  guess infamously hit the mainstream towards the end of
• 16:50
  last year after the publication, Jezebel published a piece with
• 16:54
  the headline quote, we paid Etsy witches to cast Charlie Koch.
• 16:58
  And this was just days before he was killed.
• 17:01
  And many online users felt that this was inappropriate slash
• 17:05
  unethical for a publication to do.
• 17:08
  And obviously some blame was levelled towards the platform
• 17:11
  because Etsy is allowing this to take place in their marketplace.
• 17:15
  But it seems they might be doing something about it, because in
• 17:18
  this Tick Tock, Carol explained that she was trying to find her
• 17:21
  Etsy witch on the platform before discovering that her shop
• 17:24
  had been taken down. She later messaged her Etsy
• 17:28
  witch to ask about the situation, where the Etsy witch
• 17:31
  responded that the platform is suspending this type of service.
• 17:34
  I'll insert the video here as well so you can hear it in
• 17:37
  Carol's words. Etsy is getting rid of the Etsy
• 17:41
  witches. So a couple of months ago
• 17:42
  someone asked me who my Etsy witch is and I'm a real 1.
• 17:45
  So of course I went to go get her link and when I went on Etsy
• 17:50
  her shop was closed. I'm panicking because that Etsy
• 17:53
  which helped me get tickets to Ariana Grande's Eternal Sunshine
• 17:57
  tour, we need her. So I was very alarmed.
• 18:00
  Then at the very end of December I checked her page again and for
• 18:04
  whatever reason I was all of a sudden able to see her shop.
• 18:07
  She didn't have any listings up but I was able to message her so
• 18:10
  I messaged her. OMG are you back?
• 18:11
  And I don't know I don't really check Etsy like that unless I'm
• 18:14
  going on there to look at something specific.
• 18:16
  I actually just saw that she responded a day later saying
• 18:19
  that Etsy is suspending all spell casting sellers on their
• 18:24
  platform. What do you mean?
• 18:26
  I did go look at Etsy's kind of house rules to see exactly what
• 18:30
  they have said about these services and it does say that
• 18:33
  quote metaphysical services may not be sold on Etsy where it
• 18:37
  lists a couple of services including but not limited to
• 18:40
  spell casting rituals and items that promise a metaphysical
• 18:44
  outcome. The comments on this TikTok are
• 18:47
  quite funny. I would recommend that you check
• 18:49
  it out, but to bring it back to the tech component, a lot of it
• 18:53
  seems to be about how Etsy has really declined in quality in
• 18:56
  the past few years. Some of the users were referring
• 18:59
  to the amount of scam is on the platform, including fake Etsy,
• 19:02
  which is and others have said that this move is the platform
• 19:07
  prohibiting people from practicing their spiritual
• 19:10
  beliefs and others, which I think is probably the most
• 19:14
  relevant to this podcast. We're talking about it in terms
• 19:17
  of Etsy allowing AI and drop shippers on the platform.
• 19:21
  This is of course something that we are seeing across the board,
• 19:24
  especially with product based businesses online.
• 19:27
  Last week I was talking about how users are increasingly upset
• 19:30
  with Pinterest for its AI inspo pics, where it can be easy to
• 19:34
  fall for AI generated ads on Pinterest of certain clothing
• 19:38
  items. I've seen a creators make videos
• 19:41
  off this phenomenon like Sophie and I God buying dresses from
• 19:45
  clearly AI generated ads and also I think Mia Maples where
• 19:48
  she got designers to create these AI generated designs in
• 19:52
  real life. That's not even to mention
• 19:54
  TikTok shop and whatever is going on there.
• 19:56
  But yes I have seen people upset in the comments about Etsy
• 20:00
  allowing this kind of AI generated fake content but
• 20:04
  taking away the Etsy witches. Anyway, I'm curious to hear what
• 20:08
  you guys make of all of it and whether you've also noticed a
• 20:11
  decline in Etsy over the past few years like as a platform and
• 20:15
  if it's something you use. I have used Etsy in the past and
• 20:20
  I will say I don't think I have ordered well because what I have
• 20:23
  ordered. Hasn't always been the quality
• 20:26
  that I expect, but honestly there are some amazing sellers
• 20:29
  on there so I wouldn't want to downplay any of that.
• 20:31
  Well, that is everything from Mini Tech Scroll today.
• 20:34
  I really hope you enjoyed. Lauren will speak to you guys
• 20:38
  tomorrow and I will see you next week.
• 20:40
  Thanks for listening. Bye.