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Harshita Ganesh on Reclaiming Content Control for Women · Legal Late Night

• Jared Correia (00:00): Hello, everybody. We've got a show that promises to be at least mildly interesting for your listening and watching enjoyment. For the monologue, I'm talking about how the greed is good ethos of the '80s encroached into all parts of society. In the interview, we've got Harshita Ganesh, an attorney at CMBG3 Law who provides us coverage of recent legal changes seeking to combat deep fake porn and revenge porn. In the counter program, we're bringing back the wheel of justice for Harshita. Now, it's time to talk about the time when toys became big business. In perhaps the most impactful you had me at Hello Marketing moment of my entire life, Hasbro has announced an apology tour this year for Transformers the Movie. Transformers of the Movie, if you were unaware, came out in 1986 40 years ago and it is now re-releasing in movie theaters with a 4K update to boot on September 17th of this year. (01:10): I will be there. Throughout the year, there will also be fan events as well as custom toy releases. So you may be asking yourself things like, why is it an apology tour? And why would a nearly 50-year-old man like yourself care about a movie focused on children's toys, Jared? To the latter question, I would say, fuck off. I'm still grieving. Okay. To the former question, I would answer that Transformers the Movie is the most fucked up film released for children ever. And it traumatized an entire generation. The Transformers were a toy line that originated in Japan, which was imported into the United States, was perhaps the greatest toy conceit ever. They were robots who could transform into vehicles and back again, hence the name. The Transformers Toy Line and Cartoon Series both launched in the United States in 1984. And as a six-year-old boy at the time, let me tell you, this was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. (02:15): Transformers, the toys and the cartoon were both immensely popular. Adjusted for inflation. Transformers toys sold for over $2.5 billion from 1985 to 1990. After two show seasons, Transformers, the movie was set to release in 1986. This was the chance to see the Autobots, the good guys, and the Decepticons, the bad guys battle it out on the big screen. Of all the Transformers, Optimus Prime, the Autobot Leader was everybody's favorite. He was a tractor trailer and transformed from that big red rig into a robot. He was so badass. So millions of six to 10 year olds streamed into the movies to see the spectacle and they killed Optimus Prime within 30 minutes. Not only that, Hasbro killed almost every single original character. It was utter carnage. There was weeping, gnashing of teeth. Our robot eras were dead replaced by a new autobot leader, Ronomus Prime, the former Hot Rod, voiced by 80s legend, Judd Nelson, and a revived/revised version of Megatron, the Decepticon leader, now called Galvitron, who was voiced by Leonard Nimoy. (03:38): Plus the movie introduced another big bad, Unicorn, a planet eating robot voice by.That's right. Orson Wells in his last film role. Looking back now, this movie kind of fucking rocks. This is such a ballsy choice. I love it. I can't say enough how much has pulled the rug out from under every kid in the movies. No one had ever even heard of these characters before. This was like pre-spoilers. There was no internet. All of a sudden, within the space of 20 minutes, you have an entirely new set of toys and characters. Hasbro went all in with futuristic vehicles and high-end voice talent to promote their new toy line. It was the right move, I think. It was ahead of its time. It was iconic or maybe that's just a traumatic intelligence talking. I don't know. Back in 1986, I wasn't thinking about any of that stuff. (04:34): I was just wondering why Hasbro would do me so dirty. So why did they? From the 1950s through the 1970s, there were strict broadcast standards for children's television. Neither were toys necessarily associated with or springing from media. That all changed when the Star Wars movies came out starting in 1977. Kenner started selling the Star Wars toy line, which did bang up business. So that first Star Wars movie retroactively titled A New Hope came out in 1977 and in 1978, Kenner sold 40 million Star Wars toys. George Lucas, in fact, made way more money from Star Wars toys in the movies because he got an exclusive licensing deal for the toys when 20th century Fox didn't think they would sell. Whoops. Now, while it was cleared by the early 80s that toy tie-ins could be a big business, the Reagan administration added rocket fuel to the fire when the FCC and the FTC largely deregulated children's television. (05:41): Prior to the Reagan era, there were effective limitations on the length and nature of advertising to children on TV. But Reagan said, "Fuck all to that, " and the gloves came off. Now, not only could toy companies continue to place advertisements for their toys on television and traditional commercials, they could create entire shows around products. Series length spawn con. This was the opposite of the Star Wars scenario where the media spun off the toys. Now, the toys could be created first and the shows could be built around the toy line. With millions of latch key kids appearing in the 1980s who were home alone after school, waiting for their parents to come back from work, there was nothing to do but eat serial and watch TV, trust me. So a wave of toy line and studio partnership started to spring up. Heman and the masters of the universe was a McTell, that's the toy maker, and Film, the animation studio collaboration, and it was perfectly timed having already been in development before Reagan was elected. (06:46): And it was really the first true toy to show television series. And Eman was great. He managed just a jack dude whose alter ego is a weekly prince. He's got a Captain America in him and it's like the toy/animated version of Conan the Barbarian, though Heman was developed independently. Heman had a green tiger that he wrote naturally who featured weak and strong iterations as well. He fought Skeletor, an equally jacked man with a skeleton face who was his moral enemy defending Castle Gray Skull against him. They had some mild characters in E Man Man like Trap Jaw. He had a metal jaw, kind of like Jaws from James Bond. Manny faces a dude who had three faces and was obviously Portuguese since his name was Manny and Fisto, who yes, simply had a giant fist. Eventually they started to run out of ideas. My favorite Heman was Battle Damage Heman who took damage to his chest. (07:47): He'd get hit with an ax and the chest would spin around to show a big scar. Yeah, we didn't have the internet back then. Heman even spawned a spinoff Shira, the Princess of Power, which recently featured a well received reboot. That's Shira, not Shewoman as you might have suspected. And there's a Heman movie coming out this year too. It looks like it sucks though. There was an avalanche of similar shows after Heman that did Gangbusters ratings and sales too. Thundercats, remember them? A Rankin Bass television and LJN toy partnership featured Anthropomorphic Big Cats led by Lionel against just a great villain, the evil mummy, Mumrah, who was actually really scary when you were a kid. Care Bears, those kind little fuckers who could take you out with their Care Bear stare. Gem and Holograms, perhaps the greatest girl group of the '80s. GI Joe, the partner product at Transformers from Asbro featuring military figurines. (08:48): My little pony, kind of like Horse Care Bears who had butt tattoos of special powers. Yeah, maybe I shouldn't say anymore. And of course, the transformers themselves among others. Many of these studio shows had the same attributes like veritable catnip for children of the '80s. The most sure fire recipe included things like a cool confident leader of a group of good guys, Optimus Prime, Iman, Lion O. A Goofy Sidekick, Orco Bumblebee, Fun Shine Bear, a kickass theme song with heavy rock overlay series. All of these shows had banger theme songs. Go listen to them. An evil team in opposition to the heroes led by a flawed character, Megatron, Skeletor, Cobra Commander, amazing layers, Castle Grayskull, Cats Layer, Starlight Mansion. I need a layer. Cool vehicles, attack track, havoc, the Thunder Tank. I got to tell you, I feel like much of the consternation around avoiding commercial programming for children centering around a concern over the creation of dog ship programming just to sell toys, but pretty much all of these shows inspired by the toys were fucking awesome. (09:59): It's still emotionally resonant for me four decades later. Even some of the misses from this decade of children's television were pretty enthralling. Silver Hawks, if you remember them, was created by the same team that built the Thundercats, but these were half robot, half human space adventures who could fly. Hell yeah. Like RoboCop, but in space with multiple robocops. Each had a companion robot hawk, of course. There was a brave leader, randomly a country singer, male and female twins and a child whose suit was made of copper, not silver. Copperhawk? No. Copper kid. Good guess though. Kid with two D's. They would all fight Monstar, an alien who could transform into a robot. He was like Space Mamara. Silver Hawks was fucking awesome, but the developers of Silver Hawks made the mistake of releasing the companion toys a year after the show premiered. Come on guys, that's not how it's done. (11:00): They did not sell well enough and there was no season two RIP Silver Hawks. Probably my favorite forgotten 80s toy placement cartoon was Mask M.A.S.K was developed by Kenner after the Star Wars toys started to fizzle out post return of the Jedi and was meant to be a combo platter of GI Joe and Transformers. The heroes and villains would conceal their real identity with masks hence the name and they would each have a vehicle that transformed into a different type of vehicle. Hell yeah. For example, Matt Tracker, the leader of the good guys, had a badass rad Camaro with gull wing doors that turned into a jet. Matt led the group Mask. Mobile armored strike command. Yes, command with a K. No notes. The bad guys were called Venom. That's vicious evil network of mayhem if you're nasty. Mask had some of the best character names in television history like Hondo McLean, Miles Mayhem and Lester Sludge. (12:04): All aliases I now use at various hotels around the country. All the vehicles were fantastic and the toys were some of the best of the era. Really solidly built. Mask was a huge hit in season one. Chuck Lori, the sitcom King was one of the writers. When Venom was trying to commit a new crime every episode, which Mask inevitably had to foil. Then inexplicably in season two, the theme was shifted to a racing series so the cars didn't need to transform anymore. They were just cars and that was fucking boring and that was it for Mask. Without a central conceit, the show was effectively over. Mask season two only lasted 10 episodes and was canceled a month after the Red Sauce Lost Game six of the World Series. 1986 was a tough year for your boy. (12:51): I'm not certain that 2026 is any better, but at least the apology tour is here. I mean, this whole podcast is kind of like an apology tour and the next thing we'll have to apologize for us. Coming up next, I talked to Harshita Ganesh of CMBG3 about how to take down deep fake porn. Actually, I don't think we have to apologize for this. We're performing a public service, goddammit. Well, I've effectively run out of things to say, which is awkward because this is a podcast, so I'm going to work on my shadow puppets. Let's see if I can make a bunny. Nope, I can't. It appears that I'm not as dexterous as I thought. Perhaps I should just stick to talking. To that end, our guest today is Tarshita Ganesh, an attorney at CMBG3 Law. Archita, welcome to the show. Harshita Ganesh (13:44): Hi. Jared Correia (13:45): Can you clue me into the law firm name? Was that Harshita Ganesh (13:48): The equation Jared Correia (13:49): That was on the board in Goodwill Hunting or is that something different? Harshita Ganesh (13:52): No, no. So CMBG3, we have six shareholders and it's the initials of all of their last names. So we have three shareholders with the last name that starts with G. So that's why CMBG3 is the name. Jared Correia (14:07): Okay. So you are an attorney, but you have Harshita Ganesh (14:11): A Jared Correia (14:11): Bachelor's in chemical engineering with a specialization in biochemical engineering. Harshita Ganesh (14:19): So Jared Correia (14:19): What the fuck happened here? How did you get from that to being a lawyer? Harshita Ganesh (14:24): So I always told this story that kind of encompasses the ironies that is my life. But in ninth grade, a really good friend of mine kind of dragged me into joining mock trial and I was like, "Girl, isn't that kind of for the theater rejects? What?" And she's like, "Kind of a join. You'll have fun." And so I said, "Okay, fine. I'll join it. " And I had a blast and I was raised in a very quintessential South Asian household. Your three careers are, well, really two, it was doctor or engineer. And I thought I was going to go to medical school and that was kind of the plan. And I joined law school and, sorry, not law school. I joined mock trial and I absolutely fell in love with it. We had one of the best teams in Texas. Our high school had one of the best teams and I had a blast and I went home one day to my dad and I said, "I think I want to be a lawyer." And my dad, he's kind of a serious guy. (15:26): He kind of was like, "All right, but get an engineering degree first." And I was like, "You know what? That's a fair ask." So I decided to do engineering because I still did love science and I had a lot of fun with science and it was a really good solid background. And I chose to do my undergrad in Belgium and did chemical engineering at KU Luvin and that's kind of a story in of itself, but I wanted to have an experience of living somewhere else that was more than just a summer abroad where I said Barcelona differently. I wanted to actually live in a different country. And it was a very interesting time also because it was during the first Trump administration to live in a different country and really see how we are viewed by the rest of the world. Jared Correia (16:18): I have so many questions. Let's start with the Harshita Ganesh (16:20): Hierarchy. Jared Correia (16:22): Mock trial is below theater nerd Harshita Ganesh (16:24): Apparently. I don't know. That's how I felt. I didn't even know what mock trial really was when I was in high school, but I thought that's what it was, but apparently I think it's the other way around. But no T, no shade to theater people because I don't have the talent to be in theater. Jared Correia (16:42): I did a whole podcast about how much I hate musicals. Harshita Ganesh (16:45): I can't stand musicals, but that's a different story. It's fucking Jared Correia (16:47): Terrible. Harshita Ganesh (16:49): My friends who love musicals will crucify me. Jared Correia (16:53): Well, you don't have to share this with them. My next question on hierarchy is, so it goes doctor, engineer, everything else. I thought it would be Harshita Ganesh (17:02): A doctoral lawyer. Well, lawyers now kind of ... Well, lawyers now in there. There's not a lot of South Asian lawyers. I think what Asians in general are only 4%. I could be wrong. Don't quote me on that one. Of the lawyers? I Jared Correia (17:16): Don't Harshita Ganesh (17:16): Know. Asians are a very small subset. I have no idea. Of attorneys, South Asian's even smaller. So I think it became a more recent thing for us to go to law school. I didn't grow up around any attorneys who looked like me at the time. So for me, it was new. I had to figure out a lot of things for myself as to how being an attorney works. Jared Correia (17:41): I'm over here surrounded by white male attorneys. Harshita Ganesh (17:44): I mean, I had some awesome white male attorneys who were great mentors, so not going to knock that. They definitely have helped me a lot in my career. Jared Correia (17:53): I'm just here mostly just acting like a stupid asshole on this podcast for an hour. But I do try to cover some serious topics every now and then, just to give people a window into how we operate here. I didn't know we'd be covering this topic until about 10 minutes ago because I forgot what you told me you wanted to talk about on the show. Harshita Ganesh (18:12): However, Jared Correia (18:13): We're doing it now. Harshita Ganesh (18:15): Yes, we are. Jared Correia (18:17): We want to talk about broadly speaking and we'll get more into this deep fake porn and the effect that has on women. So why don't you start us off? Harshita Ganesh (18:28): Yeah. So I think this is a really interesting conversation to have, especially because of the Take It Down Act that kind of came into effect last year. Tell me what Jared Correia (18:40): That is and the audience too. I'm not Harshita Ganesh (18:41): Sure everybody Jared Correia (18:42): Knows what that is. I'll Harshita Ganesh (18:43): Get into that. But the Take It Down Act was signed by Trump into effect last year in May and on that date that it was signed into effect, it criminalized the distribution creation and even the threat to create non-consensual pornography using AI. And also as of tomorrow, companies have to, like Meta, Twitter, X, whatever, they now have to have a protocol for- Jared Correia (19:17): As of May 19th Harshita Ganesh (19:20): After that. Jared Correia (19:21): Yeah, go ahead. Harshita Ganesh (19:21): Yeah. As of May 19th, they have to provide a protocol to make it accessible for people to request the takedown of such material and they have to take it down within 48 hours. Jared Correia (19:36): So are we talking just deepfake? Are we talking revenge porn, which is another aspect of this as well, posting stuff without people's permission? What Harshita Ganesh (19:46): Does this Jared Correia (19:46): Cover? Harshita Ganesh (19:47): So it covers that as well. It covers all of it. It covers revenge porn because a lot of deep fake pornography is non-consensual and data has shown according to the UN ... The UN had a news article in March of 2026 that kind of cited a study of a 2023 report that 98% of all deep fake videos online are deep fake pornography, and about 99% of those depict- What was that percentage Jared Correia (20:17): Again? Harshita Ganesh (20:18): 98. Jared Correia (20:20): Oh my God. Harshita Ganesh (20:21): It is now as of 2026, the numbers vary depending on who's citing the report and what pool they're looking at. Now it's slightly less because there's a lot more deep fake videos like of current events and things like that. But as of 2023, 98% was deep fake porn. 99% of that depicted women. Jared Correia (20:43): The magnitude in terms of the number is surprising to me. What's not surprising is how many depict women like that would be my expectation, frankly. Harshita Ganesh (20:53): Yeah. And children. So a really interesting study, I'm trying to remember the numbers per se. So the Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated that Grock generated approximately three million sexualized images and 23,000 of those images depicted children in an 11-day period alone from December 2025 to January 2026. It's crazy. And what was really interesting about when that happened and that study came out was instead of Twitter or X, whatever, Musk saying, "Oh yeah, no, we're going to stop. We're going to put guardrails to make sure this doesn't happen." He hid that feature behind a paywall and it's called spicy mode. So you can pay- America's Jared Correia (21:48): Second Harshita Ganesh (21:49): Biggest. Jared Correia (21:49): What a surprise. Harshita Ganesh (21:51): Yeah, really though. But what it was also interesting was in Europe, the Libby committee, which is the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament, banned the use of nudification apps in Europe in March of 2026 as a response to this. So the European Parliament did something pretty awesome in response to that very quickly. So the whole issue here is that AI- So before Jared Correia (22:20): You go on, is a nudification Harshita Ganesh (22:24): App, Jared Correia (22:26): Does that just mean you're basically using an app to strip someone of their clothes Harshita Ganesh (22:31): Effectively? Exactly. And these are so easily accessible. It takes 10 minutes on the internet to find these. They can be cloud-based. The accessibility is really high and if you are slightly tech savvy, you can avoid being traced for using these apps. So Jared Correia (22:52): The EU Harshita Ganesh (22:53): Defend Jared Correia (22:53): Those, but the US is not Harshita Ganesh (22:54): Yet? (22:55): No. But the US in its credit has created the Take It Down Act has come into effect. It is very difficult to control the dissemination of such images because once it's on the internet, it's hard to control. Copies get created. Internet's forever. Yeah. Internet's forever, right? And a lot of journalists have had this happen to them. A lot of kids have had this happen to them by their peers. Their peers are creating deep fake nudes of them. Now I have a new nightmare. That's actually how the Take It Down Act came into being. That's how it came into being. Ted Cruz, America's most loved, he actually was the reason this kind of came about. So I do give him a lot of credit for that. So how it happened was a school in Texas, there were a bunch of teen girls, I believe, who had their pictures. (23:54): They had very normal fully clothed pictures. A bunch of boys in their class used nudification apps to strip them down and sent it on Snapchat. They couldn't get it down. They called Snapchat. They tried to do everything to pull it and they couldn't. They contacted Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz contacted Snapchat, had it removed. And Ted Cruz did see the big issue there. This was right after the whole thing happened with Taylor Swift and he said, "You shouldn't have to be Taylor Swift to be able to get these things taken down." So he put it forth. Amy Klobuchar I believe joined with him on this bill and it was fully signed into effect by Trump in May of 2025. And it immediately went into effect in that criminal penalties will happen if you have disseminated, created or threatened to do such, create AI deepfakes and non-consensual pornography of somebody. (24:52): So that was great. And the person who does do so, they can face violations, they can face fines, but they can also face jail times for adult if the victims were adults of two years and if it's a minor, three years. And the first conviction under the Take It Down Act happened in April of this year. Jared Correia (25:16): And what happened there? Was that Harshita Ganesh (25:17): Individual Jared Correia (25:18): And how much time did Harshita Ganesh (25:19): They get? It's an individual. So he's still awaiting sentencing. His conviction happened in April. He basically created an insane amount of deep fake porn imagery of several women and young men that he allegedly knew sold them and was keeping several of them for himself. It was in Ohio and the DOJ brought enforcement against him and he was convicted for this offense. And so an interesting thing to point out with the Take It Down Act is that it is like because it is a criminal enforcement, enforcement has to be brought by the DOJ. So as a victim can't, like with any criminal action, they can't bring in- I'm Jared Correia (26:10): Laughing at that. It just seems quite ironic at this point that Harshita Ganesh (26:14): That's where we are. Yeah. So right, given the situation we are in, the DOJ has to bring in charges against the individual for- Jared Correia (26:24): So there's no Harshita Ganesh (26:25): State-based Jared Correia (26:26): Right to action at this point? Harshita Ganesh (26:28): Criminal right of action, it varies. So 45 states do have AI laws against non-consensual pornography or the AI generation of using AI to generate non-consensual pornography. Yes. There are 45 states that do have laws in place. Five don't, but it's just because their laws don't bridge the gap with the AI issue. So it doesn't explicitly say that AI comes in. Jared Correia (26:55): Are those civil penalties or criminal or a mix of both? How does that- Harshita Ganesh (26:59): There's a mix of both. But as of civil penalties right now, the thing is with the Take It Down Act, right? It's criminal, but the Defiance Act, which is brought by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is past the Senate and it's waiting for house approval, but this one brings federal civil remedies for the creation and dissemination of non-consensual AI generated pornography. And Paris Hilton is a big endorser of it because she's sadly suffered from this happening to her like many other celebrities. So fingers crossed, that goes through. But just because the Take It Down Act is a criminal act, that doesn't mean it cannot be used to bolster civil claims. So for example, negligence per se, we all love negligence in common law tort doctrine, right? Jared Correia (27:55): Spoken like Harshita Ganesh (27:56): A Jared Correia (27:56): Former mock trial member. Harshita Ganesh (27:58): Love it, right? So basically the court can use the law as a standard of care. It can say that the defendant broke this law so they can be presumed to have breached their duty of care to the plaintiff. So you can argue that the violation of the federal law constitutes negligence per se and the act was explicitly designed to prevent the harm the victim suffered, right? Psychological, financial, reputational harm because of this non-consensual exposure and the victim is the exact kind that this law aims to protect. So many courts would allow a jury in a civil trial to be instructed that by breaking this law, it's evidence of negligence. And in some jurisdictions it may be even used as conclusive proof of negligence unless the defendant can excuse the violation, which would be very difficult. And it can be if a courts hesitant to apply negligence per se because statutory interpretation, some courts will see that the lack of creating a private right of action may be Congress like the congressional intent to not have that or legislative intent to not have that private right of action, but the act still can serve as a strong evidence of what a reasonable standard of care would be, like in situations involving this intimate content. (29:17): So we can even apply this to a platform like Meta or X, but- Just the center of Jared Correia (29:24): This again, you've got these rights against individuals, so perpetrators basically, those who produced and disseminate images, Harshita Ganesh (29:34): Which Jared Correia (29:34): Is a new thing. But then traditionally, there's been this issue where there are companies who are allowing these images to be created and also hosting the images. Harshita Ganesh (29:44): So Jared Correia (29:45): Go ahead. Harshita Ganesh (29:45): Exactly. So we can use this act to bolster a claim if you were to bring a claim against Meta to say that there's a standard of care that these companies failed to abide by. So normally The Communications Decency Act, Section 230 would shield major platforms from liability of user posted content. But in specific factual cases like this one, the platform can still be on the hook. So for example, the Take It Down Act says you have 48 hours to remove such material once it's kind of brought to your attention. If a company drags its feet and takes three weeks to remove it, a lawyer can say, "Hey, the benchmark is a 48 hour rule. It was put in this statute." You have to remove it by now. And a lawyer can highlight that congressional intent. And this can be used to argue that they breached their duty of care by acting unreasonably slow. (30:48): So also if by May 19th, so tomorrow as a recording, a company does not have a clear reporting mechanism at all, this violates the Take It Down Act's requirements. So it can say you fell below standard of care that a prudent company should have met in 2025 and May 2026. So we've seen this dynamic play out before with HIPAA laws on what a doctor's duty of care is in protecting patient privacy. And we can kind of expect the Take It Down Act to act in a similar way. And another way that we can hold in civil court until the Defiance Act comes into play if it does, fingers crossed, is we could use it to support the VAWA Act. So the Violence Against Women Act. Unbeknownst to a lot of people in 2022, it was reauthorized and it quietly created a federal civil cause of action for victims of non-consensual pornography. (31:54): And it was codified, I believe in 15 USC 6851. Jared Correia (32:01): We Harshita Ganesh (32:02): Got an Jared Correia (32:02): Audience of lawyers, they can look it up. Harshita Ganesh (32:04): They'll look it up. So this allows victims to sue perpetrators in federal court for disclosing intimate images without consent, provided that there's an interstate commerce nexus, which online usually does satisfy. Pretty much guaranteed, right? So this can strengthen your cause of action again because it can show that Congress twice said that this kind of behavior was improper. So now acts using this to bolster under using it to support VAWA has not really been reported on or documented as much because it's rather recent. So a lot of these have kind of, I'm sure these causes of actions have been brought, but they're probably settled in like they've probably been resolved in a confidential settlement or ended rather quietly or in a default. Jared Correia (32:52): Before we move ahead, what do you think the reporting mechanism is going to look like? Is there some insight into that? Am I simply Harshita Ganesh (33:01): Going for Jared Correia (33:01): Companies? Facebook support and being like, "Hey, someone posted a nude image of me online." Harshita Ganesh (33:08): Yeah. It's going to be, you can contact communications crisis hotlines, cyber crime hotlines that are available at requests. X, Meta, they all need to have very clear ways to be able to report. So a support line specifically for this, you need to be able to report your own image, be able to talk to a real person about this is really important. They need to have it very easy to navigate. Up until recently it's been held to have to navigate reporting if anything of this nature happened. It would take forever. They would drag their feet and a lot of them would be scared to delete content just because they don't want reprisal from the person who uploaded the content. But there is a safe harbor provision in the Take It Down Act that they want companies to err on the side of caution in removing content without fear of being sued by the person who uploaded the content. (34:14): So it protects them from that. Jared Correia (34:16): You deleted my porn, you bastard. Right. Harshita Ganesh (34:19): How dare you? Jared Correia (34:21): Let me ask you this. So let's say a company's dragging its feet on the takedown. What's the teeth there? How do you get that curly haired motherfucker Mark Zuckerberg to even care about this? Harshita Ganesh (34:39): All suits. Hit them on their purse strings, right? So Jared Correia (34:43): Financial Harshita Ganesh (34:44): Penalties built into Jared Correia (34:45): The statute? Okay. Harshita Ganesh (34:46): Well, in Take It Down Act, no. But you can sue a company for negligence, like I just said. Like you were talking about. You can sort them. That's the avenue. And I mean, negligence per se for platforms is kind of a difficult question to answer whether you could do that. And it's because of the Section 230 in the Communications Decency Act that I mentioned their immunity. So in general, you can't really sue a platform for damages for leaving somebody else's harmful content up because it kind of treats the platform as the publisher, which the statute shields. But the Take It Down Act does not create a Section 230 exception for civil suits by victims. So that does leave enforcement up to the FTC. So a direct negligence claim against say Meta- Jared Correia (35:44): Brenda Harshita Ganesh (35:44): Carr, Jared Correia (35:44): Get on that Harshita Ganesh (35:45): Shift. Right. You will likely be barred by federal immunity. So it's a very tricky scenario right now. A lot of it needs to be the best way to hold a lot of these companies accountable is in civil actions wherever possible. And we're right now waiting to see how that plays out in court. Anything Jared Correia (36:08): Else you want to add on this that we have missed? Anything you want Harshita Ganesh (36:13): To hear before we- Oh, there's so much we can talk about, but this is, I think one thing I do want to add is a lot of these issues with AI were very easy to anticipate if you just allowed a woman in the room. Jared Correia (36:27): Oh, I Harshita Ganesh (36:28): Like this. Jared Correia (36:29): Go ahead. Yes. Harshita Ganesh (36:30): If you had just allowed a woman in the room to speak very loudly and very freely about these issues when the emergence of generative AI came out when there was a lack of guardrails and whenever you're sitting down in the compliance room, if there is not a woman at the table who's able to speak freely, you will miss these things. I think what the data is 91% of software developers in the AI space are men. A woman would've seen this coming five miles away immediately. Absolutely. Let's talk about metaglasses. What is the need for metaglasses? They want to now put in facial recognition. No need. In the metaglasses, a woman can immediately tell you that is a problem for victims of stalking, harassment. And in general, I don't want a random creep on the street to be able to know who I am. That's going to be a problem. (37:24): We all know how it's going to be used and abused. Let women in the room and let them talk. Let them speak because this is how you prevent these issues happening. Now, one of three things is happening. Either women are in the room but they're not allowed to speak. Terrible. Two, the men in the room are very aware this could be a possibility, but they don't care. Or three, they're absolutely dumb asses and they just don't anticipate this happening. None of these three things are great. Jared Correia (37:52): I don't think number three is what's happening. Harshita Ganesh (37:55): Yeah. I think this is willful Jared Correia (37:57): And Harshita Ganesh (37:57): Intentional. (37:59): I do too. And it's kind of just a new way to control women and keep them quiet. I'm not surprised this is happening. It is really scary that it's happening, especially that children in high school and middle school have to be worried about this, that young girls are very painfully aware that this is a reality. For me when I was in high school, a lot of it was don't go out late and don't drink anything that you didn't open yourself. And now women have to be like, "Don't have an online presence because it will be used against you. And you don't know if images of you that you did not consensually agree to are being used." I mean, there was a report recently that there was a group of men who were using images of women without their consent to create AI OnlyFans basically of them and selling it and teaching courses and selling courses on how to do that. Jared Correia (38:56): Yeah. Yeah. I'm not Harshita Ganesh (38:57): To Jared Correia (38:58): Hear that. Harshita Ganesh (38:59): This is insanity and it's just a new way to shut women up. And I'm not surprised this is happening. And I really don't think tech companies with this administration are going to self-police unless there's serious serious damages involved. They don't Jared Correia (39:15): Give a fuck. Yeah. I mean, disrespect for women is one of the biggest problems this country has and has for a long time. Last thing I want to ask you is, and that was all well said, what if there are attorneys out there who are like, "I would like to help to get involved in this as a social justice activity." How would they do that? Harshita Ganesh (39:38): Well, for them, find law review journals to publish on, bring awareness, simple as writing articles on this, talking about it, doing research, offering to do pro bono work for women who have had this happen to them, work with your state AG's office to see how can we strengthen legislation, find areas that are of interest to you and see whatever you can do. Community awareness is a big one. People don't talk about this issue because there's a lot of shame associated with it. It's a taboo topic. People don't like talking about it. Shame is not on women. For this, it never has been and it shouldn't be, but it is unfortunately placed. But be loud. Talk about it. This is a problem and it's going to get worse. It already is. Find ways to get involved in your local community. Bring education to children. If you have sons have conversations with them about consent early and tell them about these things and that participating in things like this, not allowed. (40:46): You need to be better than that and have conversations with young girls that if this happens to you, tell us. Talk to us. Sextortion is becoming a big problem because of this too. And a lot of kids don't want to tell their parents because they're afraid of getting in trouble. Talk to them. Talk about it. That's the easiest way to bring attention and support the conversation around this. As I think as men, you guys have the biggest amount of power in affecting change by talking about it and making sure that your bros are aware that this is not acceptable behavior. Jared Correia (41:25): Yeah. This is why I keep my children in activities twenty four seven. Those are all great points. Keep talking. It seems extremely trite at this point, but we are going to move on to our next stupid game segment. Will you come back for that? That'll be our palate Harshita Ganesh (41:41): Pointer. Yes. Yes. Okay. Jared Correia (41:44): Okay. We'll do that next. Welcome to the Counter Program. It's a podcast within a podcast. This is a conversational space where we can address usually unrelated topics that I want to hit at a greater depth with my guests. Expect no rhyme and very little reason. Harshita, welcome back. Harshita Ganesh (42:08): Hi. Jared Correia (42:09): I would say that we built this segment. Harshita Ganesh (42:12): I'm scared.ment just for Jared Correia (42:16): You. Harshita Ganesh (42:17): Oh God. Okay. Jared Correia (42:20): I would say that I built this segment just for you, but we ran it last week as well. I just love it so much. It's called the Wheel of Justice. Have you ever been to Backowski Tavern in Harshita Ganesh (42:29): Boston? I have not. Jared Correia (42:31): You should go. Harshita Ganesh (42:32): Okay. Jared Correia (42:32): Basically, they have a wheel at the bar and if you want something to drink, you could spin the wheel and whatever the wheel selects, you drink, you buy and drink. The wheel is wise. The wheel is just. We just spin the wheel and whatever category comes up, I'm going to ask you a question associated with that category. Harshita Ganesh (42:52): Sounds good. Are Jared Correia (42:53): You Harshita Ganesh (42:54): Ready to play? I am. Jared Correia (42:54): Okay. If we never get through all of them, I think we'll do about six. Harshita Ganesh (42:59): All right, let's go. Jared Correia (42:59): Kevin, the bearded van of White of Legal Late Night. Please spin the wheel. So our first category is ups and downs. Category one, ups and downs. And the question is, what is your favorite amusement park ride? Harshita Ganesh (43:21): Okay. I'm going to say something. And I've never been on an amusement park ride. Jared Correia (43:27): Oh, good. I was hoping this would happen. Harshita Ganesh (43:29): How come? Well, no, does it count if I was on the ... What's that one in Disney World or Disneyland where it's like the little world after all, that one? It's kind of creepy. It's a small world after all. It's a small world. Yeah. I was on that when I was three and I really have no recollection of it. I've just never been a huge fan of amusement parks. I get motion sickness very easily. I wish I had the glasses with me, but I have these dumb ass motion sickness glasses, which literally are like ... It's like glasses like circle here and circle on the side and it has the liquid that goes on. I have to use it when I play video games. Oh, that's Jared Correia (44:05): Crazy. I don't even know Harshita Ganesh (44:06): What that Jared Correia (44:07): Is. Harshita Ganesh (44:08): Yeah. Amazon. Jared Correia (44:10): It's a small world after all, as some people call it. It's a little world here and there, I think is how you described it. That is not a great ride. Harshita Ganesh (44:18): Yeah. No, I was never into adrenaline stuff like roller coasters and stuff. Jared Correia (44:24): I love roller coasters. The crazier, the better. Let me ask you this. You're a gamer. Harshita Ganesh (44:31): What's Jared Correia (44:31): Your favorite video game? Harshita Ganesh (44:33): Okay. So I'm not really a gamer in the truest sense, so I know a lot of the boys will crucify me. I used to play- With Jared Correia (44:39): Stream or anything? Harshita Ganesh (44:40): No, I don't. I'm not into that. I do love watching indie horror Twitch streamers and just while I'm working in the background, if I'm doing something rather boring, I will play that in the background. I find them hilarious. I used to play a lot of league in undergrad just to bond with more of the boys in my class. Jared Correia (45:00): League of Legends. Is that what it Harshita Ganesh (45:02): Is? Yeah. Jared Correia (45:03): Okay. Harshita Ganesh (45:03): Yeah. Jared Correia (45:03): I Harshita Ganesh (45:03): Don't really know what Jared Correia (45:04): That is, but I know the name. Harshita Ganesh (45:06): Yeah. And then I have my Nintendo Switch, so I like to play a lot of cozy games in the evenings. You've Jared Correia (45:14): Got an Animal Crossing or something like Harshita Ganesh (45:17): That. I do have Animal Crossing. I do love me, my Animal Crossing, and then Sims. I do love my Sims and all the mods that come with it. So that's kind of one thing I do. I know. I Jared Correia (45:28): Know Harshita Ganesh (45:29): About the Mods. Jared Correia (45:30): I purchased quite a number of Mods. See, the Wheel of Jess is fun. It could take any number of directions. Harshita Ganesh (45:37): Should Jared Correia (45:37): We Harshita Ganesh (45:37): Sing it again? It clearly can. Let's go again. Let's spin Jared Correia (45:40): It again. The oven. Harshita Ganesh (45:43): Okay. Jared Correia (45:44): Bun in the oven. Harshita Ganesh (45:47): All Jared Correia (45:48): Right. Who's your favorite pop culture baby? Harshita Ganesh (45:52): Pop culture baby. Jared Correia (45:54): Yeah. Present, past. The Lindbergh baby is on the table. Oh Harshita Ganesh (46:01): My God. Pop Jared Correia (46:02): Culture based- Baby Harshita Ganesh (46:03): Yoda Jared Correia (46:03): Is on the table. Harshita Ganesh (46:04): I don't think I really pay attention to pop culture kids. I will say the ones I get the most amusement out of are like Beyonce's kids, like Blue Ivy because she's now stepping into her mom's shoes. So I find that interesting. The other thing with the Bun in the Oven is Rihanna keeps getting pregnant. I need her to stop getting pregnant. I need her to release an album. So Jared Correia (46:29): Rihanna's been late on a new album due to various Harshita Ganesh (46:31): Pregnancies. Yeah, because she keeps getting Jared Correia (46:32): Pregnant. When was her last album? Harshita Ganesh (46:36): I don't even remember. I think she did a song for a Disney movie, like a Rio or something. But then she's not released to album That was a long time ago. I mean, I get it. I mean, I look at ASAP Rocky and I'm like, okay, I get it. But come on, stop having babies. I need an album. The summer needs an album. Recession pop needs to go hard and I need Rihanna to come out with an album right now. Jared Correia (47:00): All right, Rihanna, we need to follow up to Brad Summer. Get on it. Harshita Ganesh (47:03): Yes. Yes. Jared Correia (47:04): All right. Next spin. Let's spin it again. So far we've gotten two entirely pop culture questions, which I'm always excited about because I think those are more interesting than the legal specific Harshita Ganesh (47:13): Questions. I'm always terrible at pop culture questions. Jared Correia (47:17): The singularity part two, you may be asking yourself what's the singularity part one. Maybe we'll find out. Maybe we won't. What is your favorite AI tool for usage in your personal life? Harshita Ganesh (47:34): So here's my hot take. I try to avoid AI as much as I can in my personal life. Love it. But if I have to use it, I like Claude. I like claudic. And I like perplexity. But I prefer to avoid using it because I do believe the people who don't use AI to cognitively offload a lot of tasks will kind of reign to be more, well, intelligent in 10 to 15 years. So I try to avoid it. I'm trying to go back actually more to old school ways of doing things because I feel like with all this technology we're implementing in our lives, everybody's getting incrementally stupider. Jared Correia (48:23): I don't disagree. Are you out there carving scrimshaw or some shit or Harshita Ganesh (48:28): Are you back in the cottage Jared Correia (48:29): Economy? Harshita Ganesh (48:30): No, I actually am kind of considering getting a flip phone and going back to that. That's kind of where I am, like the crazers or the- What a joy. I do personally think that we went downhill as society the second smartphones happened. We did not need smartphones. It was too much. At that point we really just lost all meaning and enjoyment in society. Jared Correia (48:55): Evan knows that I did not have a smartphone until last year. I had a flip phone. Harshita Ganesh (48:59): Really? Jared Correia (49:00): Yes. Harshita Ganesh (49:01): Good for you. Jared Correia (49:03): I think that the creation of the internet destroyed everything. It sucks. Harshita Ganesh (49:08): The internet did, but I do think the ability to have access to it at every second of the day is what made it terrible. We don't need to be bombarded with information all the time. I don't need to hear every horrifying headline. Every five seconds it pops up and then I wonder why I'm depressed because I'm overwhelmed with news and people are able to contact you at all times. It's just that's not how we were meant to live as people. So yeah, long story short, I try to use AI for meaningless tasks like create a grocery list for me, but otherwise I don't use it to psychoanalyze text messages. I don't use it to create a breakup text. I try to be authentic and do that myself and I don't use it for ... I try to just avoid using it all together if I can, unless it's something that's like low level or it's not going to impair a skill long term. Jared Correia (50:11): What would the Cave people say about all this? I think they would say spin the wheel. We need another question. Harshita Ganesh (50:16): I think the Cave people would be sent into psychosis. Jared Correia (50:20): Yeah, probably. Space City, you might know what I'm going to ask about. Harshita Ganesh (50:26): No. Jared Correia (50:27): Houston, Texas. Harshita Ganesh (50:28): Oh, okay. Known Jared Correia (50:29): As Space City. If I go to Houston, what is the one thing I should do? Harshita Ganesh (50:36): So I'm from Houston. I lived there for many, many years and I would say the one thing to do if you were in Houston aside from NASA, if you have kids, that's great. Go do NASA. Kima Boardwalk is- Jared Correia (50:52): Is NASA a place that one can visit? Harshita Ganesh (50:55): Yes. NASA headquarters. Well, it's Houston, right? Ah crap. What's the term for it? It's control center. You don't get to see the intimate stuff, but they do have replicas and they have really great tours. I think the last time I did one was like 10 years ago or something like that and I did it with my family. But it's a lot of fun if you have kids. Another thing is Kima Boardwalk. It's Houston's kind of like theme park boardwalk. It has amusements. It's great in the summer. Galveston Beach is great. The beach itself sucks, but they have some great food. The beach itself will be- Even boardwalk, I'm Jared Correia (51:39): Noticing there are quite a number of rides there, Harshita Ganesh (51:43): Which I'm Jared Correia (51:43): Assuming you'd be avoiding. Harshita Ganesh (51:45): Yes. I'm the grandma who just walks on the boardwalk and just watches the Seagulls. Yeah, not much from his place. Boardwalk, Jared Correia (51:54): NASA, Galveston Beach. Harshita Ganesh (51:57): Houston is a great place to live, not a great place to visit, if that makes sense. Jared Correia (52:02): That makes sense. I feel like Houston is so Harshita Ganesh (52:05): Small like Boston. Jared Correia (52:06): It's Harshita Ganesh (52:07): Just Jared Correia (52:07): Like a gigantic ... Yeah. I mean, I also thinkouton's so much bigger. Huge. Boston. It's Harshita Ganesh (52:14): Huge. Huge. Jared Correia (52:16): Yeah. Speaking of big things, let's spin and get our next question. What's the next big thing? There's still a lot of legal stuff on the table. Harshita Ganesh (52:26): Singularity part one? Oh, no. Capital idea. No, Jared Correia (52:28): Sadly. Capital idea. Capital idea. Okay. Harshita Ganesh (52:31): All right. Jared Correia (52:32): What's the best law school in the world? Harshita Ganesh (52:35): Are you asking me what the statistic, like what the ranking is factually or what my opinion is? I'm Jared Correia (52:41): Asking you for your opinion. Harshita Ganesh (52:42): Oh, Georgetown, hands down. That's where I went. I love the school ride or die for Georgetown. I love the place. It's such a great place. It's not as snooty like most T-14s are. It's an awesome place to be. It's in DC. We're less than a mile from the Capitol. You can see the Capitol from the law school. You can walk to the Supreme Court. Great place. Great faculty, great people. Love Georgetown. Jared Correia (53:09): Any professor you would like to shout out here on the show Harshita Ganesh (53:12): Before we Jared Correia (53:13): Move on? Harshita Ganesh (53:14): I think Abby Lowell, he was one of my favorite professors I had. Loved him. Honestly, all my professors were fantastic. They were truly top of their game and taught me so much. I love Victoria Nurse. She was amazing. All my professors, fantastic. A plus to all of them. I don't think I had one, which I didn't like. Also, I still do have a mild grudge though against Professor Zitnik, not because of him, but he taught my corporate law class and I really did not love corporate law, but it's not against him. He made that class really hard, which he should have as he should, but still it was the last class I took in law school and it was the one I did the worst on. Jared Correia (54:01): Corporate law? Harshita Ganesh (54:02): Yeah. Jared Correia (54:02): Yeah. Well, you get a litle bit of senioritis going and it's not as complex as chemical engineering, right? Harshita Ganesh (54:08): Well, it's boring. Jared Correia (54:11): All right. Let's spin the wheel, because that's exciting. At least I'm excited by spinning of the wheel. Yeah. And what we have is flash down. Your favorite beach or body of water? Harshita Ganesh (54:26): Okay. Favorite beach I will say ... Why am I struggling to figure this one out? The most recent one I've been to- It's not Jared Correia (54:37): Galveston Beach, it doesn't sound like. Harshita Ganesh (54:41): I have the most fond memory on Galveston Beach, but it was not my favorite. No, you have to shower for three days continuously after going to the Galveston Beach. It was BP's dumping ground. Jared Correia (54:53): Like swimming in the East River? Harshita Ganesh (54:55): Yeah. It was like an oil spilled garbage can. So it was a rough water. I will say I did love the beach by Chatham. Chatham in Mass. Oh Jared Correia (55:07): Boy. Did you just Harshita Ganesh (55:08): Say Chatham? Yeah. Jared Correia (55:11): We can't edit that out. That's going to stand. Chatham. Harshita Ganesh (55:15): Chatham. My bad. I did like the beach there. You're very testy about that. Jared Correia (55:20): I was born down by the Cape. Harshita Ganesh (55:22): Yeah. Okay. That's fair. Yeah. So I love the beaches. I like the Cape. I like the Cape a lot, but the problem is I just wish it got hotter in mass because it's really hard to enjoy the beach. Jared Correia (55:34): Yeah, I agree. So Chatham Bars in, have you been there? Really nice. Harshita Ganesh (55:40): I've not. Jared Correia (55:42): Lots of sandbars out in Chatham as well. I don't know if people realize this from other parts of the country, but in Massachusetts, the water does not warm up that much. Harshita Ganesh (55:51): It does not. It's freezing.You Jared Correia (55:53): Could be swimming at the beach in July and it'll be like 50 degrees. Harshita Ganesh (55:57): Well, that's because in mass we get like 10 business days of weather above 90 degrees. Pretty much. So whenever it's above 80 degrees, which is not that often, I am by the pool. I will be enjoying the pool because we do not get hot weather that often here. Jared Correia (56:13): As Harshita Ganesh (56:13): One should. Yeah. Jared Correia (56:16): Let's do one more for the people. We usually only do six, but I'm enjoying myself. So let's do seven. I don't want to end on a question of like your favorite beach. I found your response to be interesting. However, I want to see if something crazier comes up here. One or the other. One or one or the other. I think this might be good. Okay. This is good. I want to end on this one. Would you eat a piece of black licorice covered in warm marinara sauce if in return you didn't have to bill your time for a month? This is my Harshita Ganesh (56:47): Version of- I need to know what drugs you guys were taking when you came up with that question. Jared Correia (56:54): What's that old show with Joe Rogan? This is my version of fear factor. Harshita Ganesh (56:57): Okay. If I had to have black licorice covered in marinara sauce and I wouldn't have to bill for a month 100%. Jared Correia (57:08): Really? Harshita Ganesh (57:08): Yeah. Jared Correia (57:09): Wow. I don't Harshita Ganesh (57:10): Think Jared Correia (57:10): That offers on the table from your law firm, but Harshita Ganesh (57:13): If it were- It is not. I billable hours. Billy's bad. I never understood why people bitched about it until I started working and I was like, "Oh, nope. I see why everybody hates it. " It is truly the most frustrating part of being an attorney. It's not the thinking. It is literally having to bill for thinking. Now I just think in six minute increments, it's frustrating. Jared Correia (57:39): Yeah, it fucks with your head for sure. Harshita Ganesh (57:41): It's the worst. Jared Correia (57:43): So bad. I think you would eat that I would do that. That was the nastiest food item I could think of that Harshita Ganesh (57:50): Was Jared Correia (57:50): Family. Yeah. Covered in Harshita Ganesh (57:51): Manner of marinara sauce. Yeah. Yeah. I'd do it. Jared Correia (57:54): Just gross. Harshita Ganesh (57:55): I do it. Yeah. Jared Correia (57:56): Arshnita, thank you for coming on. Harshita Ganesh (57:58): Of course. My pleasure. Had fun. Jared Correia (58:01): We covered a wide range of topics. Harshita Ganesh (58:03): We did. It was very serious. Jared Correia (58:06): It was very serious and it got very not serious. We'll have to have you on again sometime. Take care. Harshita Ganesh (58:10): Yes, of course. Happy to be on. Jared Correia (58:13): Thanks for our guest today, Arshida Ganesh, an attorney at CMBG3 Law. To learn more about Harshita CMBG3, visit CMBG3.com. That's the letter CMBG, the number three.com. Cmbg3.com. Now, because I'll always be a '90s kid whose sexual awakening may have been partly spurred on by Chitara of the Thundercats, but whose true passion is burning CDs for everyone who would listen. I'm now just doing the modern version of that, which is creating Spotify playlists for every podcast episode that I record, where the songs are tangentially related to an episode topic. For this week's playlist, I'm rummaging around my memories again and have built a playlist of simply the best songs from 1986. What a year for songs. You can thank me later and it's brought to you by the GoBots or not. The Go Boss are just the shitty transformers anyway and could be described in much the same way that the Shitty Beatles were in Wayne's world. (59:17): We'll hold out for something better. Join us next time when I reminisce further about the bygone days because I do that every fucking episode, but you'll have to wait a week because we're taking the Memorial Day holiday week off since I have better things to do.