Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Wren Eleanor content removed from TikTok + SheerLuxe AI-editor 'Reem' criticism

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Wren Eleanor content removed from TikTok + SheerLuxe AI-editor 'Reem' criticism · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  OK, first of all, I've had some positive feedback on the sound,
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  so it sounds as though you guys can hear the podcast much better
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  than before. I'm very glad.
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  Second of all, I have such a funny story to tell you guys.
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  OK, so you know how on Spotify it used to say Jordy's going to
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  kill me for saying this story? So you know how on Spotify it
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  says, you know, it used to say Q&A at the bottom of every
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  episode or whatever and you could leave comments?
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  That's where we would be like leave us a Spotify review
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  anyways about, I don't know, maybe like a week or two ago
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  they removed that function. I don't know if it was for
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  everyone or if like the rollouts been kind of like, you know,
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  incremental. But for us, that feature went
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  away for just a few days and then it returned as a comments
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  feature. And then I suppose in the roll
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  out of this new comments feature, there has been some
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  type of, I don't know if it's like a glitch or what happened.
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  But anyways, last night I'm at home and I get like 100
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  notifications on my phone for Spotify for podcasters.
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  And I was like, Oh my God, did we go viral?
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  Like did one of my episodes go viral?
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  So I opened the back end and I'm looking through the comments and
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  I'm not kidding, guys. It was like an inbox filled with
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  all of the comments that Jordy had deleted over the years that
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  were negative about us or super mean.
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  So it was like opening an inbox filled with hate mail about
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  yourself. So there was some type of like
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  glitch or whatever where it brought back like all the
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  comments that had not yet been published, but like, they
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  weren't published 'cause we deleted them, 'cause they were
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  so mean. So I'm just scrolling through it
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  and I'm like, why are people commenting on things from like
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  nine months ago? And then I'm like, Oh my God, I
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  like realized what happened and I was like, Oh my God.
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  And I'm just scrolling and scrolling and it's just like the
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  meanest comments about the podcast and about us.
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  And I was like, this is actually like my worst nightmare.
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  It was very confronting. So I had to text her this
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  morning. I was like, you will never guess
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  what happened. So anyways, those have been
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  deleted. So hopefully no more negativity.
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  But it was just the most insane experience.
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  And I just had to let you guys know that.
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  OK, so for today's mini scroll, I have two stories for you guys.
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  The first story is that Ren Eleanor's content has been wiped
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  off of TikTok after years of complaints.
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  So the TikTok content posted by Ren Eleanor's account has been
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  all removed as pressures mount on platforms to do something
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  about protecting children at family vloggers.
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  So we did a whole episode at the beginning of the year about
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  family vloggers and children on the Internet, and Ren was a big
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  case study in that. So go back and listen to that
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  episode if you guys haven't listened.
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  But if you don't know who I'm talking about, Ren is a four
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  year old girl who was the star of a TikTok account called Ren
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  Eleanor. Ren's mother, Jacqueline,
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  started posting content of Ren when she was just less than a
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  year old. In December 2020, Jacqueline
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  told 3 News Now Omaha that she started the account as a way to
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  allegedly save memories. But after the account grew to
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  over 4 million followers before Ren even turned 2, Jacqueline,
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  who was a single mother, saw the opportunity as a way to make
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  money. By the time it was deactivated
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  recently, Ren had reached over 16,000,000 followers.
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  So what made the account so questionable was, you know, it
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  wasn't like a family account and Jacqueline was not a mommy
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  Blogger. The account was literally made
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  for a four year old girl, as if Ren was the one creating the
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  content and posting it. Which of course does go against
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  the platform's terms of services that state that a user must be
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  thirteen years old or older to make a TikTok account.
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  Obviously, Ren was not the one shooting and uploading content
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  of herself, so this is a loophole that Jacqueline and
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  other parents who have created accounts for their children, as
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  opposed to just like featuring their children on their
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  accounts. This is a loophole that they
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  count on to protect themselves from having these accounts
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  banned. However, over the last couple of
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  years, Jacqueline has faced intense backlash from Internet
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  users as many believed that she was exploiting Ren and
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  intentionally getting Ren to create suggestive content that
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  would appeal to predators, as EJ Dixon wrote for Rolling Stone
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  Quote To be clear, there is no evidence that Jacqueline is
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  exploiting Ren in any way. Rather, the concern seems to be
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  centered more on the type of content Jacqueline is posting,
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  such as a now deleted video of Ren playing with a tampon or Ren
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  taking a bath in a bathing suit, according to post on a subreddit
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  devoted to Ren that has more than 13,000 subscribers,
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  commenters have pointed out. Not only that, such videos get
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  more likes and saves than some of Ren's other videos, but they
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  have even tracked down the social media footprints of some
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  of Ren's followers, pointing to concerning comments that they
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  have made or other videos they have saved to indicate they may
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  be sexually attracted to children.
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  Commenters have also pointed to the existence of fan accounts
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  for Ren and searches such as Ren eating hot dog and Ren's
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  scandalous outfits as evidence that she is being sexualized by
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  a contingent of her followers. And then in July 2022, Business
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  Insider reported finding photos of Ren widely shared by male
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  followers on Pinterest. And then, as this Rolling Stone
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  piece said, there were so many fan accounts created of Ren by
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  random, like strange adults who would be basically reposting her
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  content. This is like the tip of the
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  iceberg. People were very concerned for
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  Ren. And I think in general, when it
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  comes to children online, like the problem is that once that
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  child is online, that parent or that guardian has lost complete
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  control of that child's image. So it doesn't matter if Ren's
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  mom is like limiting comments or blocking creeps, which she is
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  reportedly done in the past, because there's fan accounts
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  that the creeps can then just go access.
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  And this is about any children online, right?
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  Like once you post a kid online, whether you have, I don't know,
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  200 Instagram followers and you're on private or you have
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  200,000 Instagram followers and it's a, an account about your
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  child, whatever it is, once that photo is online, it's gone from
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  you. It is, it's out there, and
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  you've lost control of it. So Ren safety became a huge
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  topic of conversation earlier this year when exposes were
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  written by Cosmo and The New York Times about the dangers and
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  the realities of posting children on the Internet and who
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  is actually consuming that content.
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  Now it seems that either TikTok or Jacqueline have listened
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  because as of recently, Ren's entire backlog of content has
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  been removed. Some think her account was
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  deactivated, while others theorize that perhaps
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  authorities got involved. The account is still up, but
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  there's no content on it. Hopefully, this is a positive
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  step in the direction of protecting Ren and protecting
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  children online. I mean, I saw so many people
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  talk about at the beginning of this year when this was a bigger
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  conversation like around Ren, that Ren's law is going to be
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  something that we see down the track protecting minors on the
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  Internet. Because what is happening to
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  some of these kids where their parents make their accounts like
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  them as opposed to, you know, being a mommy vlogger and
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  posting about your children, which still has like ethical
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  implications, you know, like family channels.
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  We've talked about them a million times before.
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  And they are definitely exploitative of the children as
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  well. But the account being like for
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  Ren, like of Ren, no, something is wrong there.
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  Like something is wrong about that.
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  And this is a good step hopefully in protecting her.
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  Okay. And the second story that I have
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  for you guys today is that lifestyle publication Sheer Lux
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  has introduced AI editor Reem. So this week the UK based
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  lifestyle publisher Sheer Lux launched the Reem Bot, a Quote
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  AI enhanced editor powered by the Sheer Lux team.
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  Quote. Much like our other editors, she
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  has all the best recommendations when it comes to fashion,
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  beauty, interiors, travel, food, and more at the announcement
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  reads. To introduce Reem to readers,
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  Sheer Lux published an interview asking the bot questions from
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  how she would describe her style to some of her favorite
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  boutiques. And just to reiterate, Reem is
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  not a real person like she is a bot.
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  Like this is a robot. This is like a ChatGPT, like a
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  computer. So they also created an
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  Instagram for Reem, which is currently sitting at just under
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  1000 followers. Internet users have
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  unsurprisingly, had very strong reactions to this business
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  decision. As with most AI generated
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  journalistic content, users feel uneasy about reading pieces and
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  accepting recommendations from a bot.
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  However, Reem is clearly labeled as an AI enhanced editor, so
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  that might kind of help mitigate some of the concerns there.
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  It will be very clear, I think, when an article is written by
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  Reem versus an actual person. Nevertheless, many users have
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  also taken to TikTok to question Sheer Lux's decision to make the
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  AI editor a woman of color. Based on her appearance and her
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  name, users believe that she is meant to be of Middle Eastern
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  origin, and they have pointed out that Sheer Lux has
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  previously faced criticism for a lack of diversity in their team.
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  So making the decision to create an AI generated woman of color,
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  it feels kind of out of touch and performative and as if it's
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  almost like putting a Band-Aid on that criticism and saying
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  like, see now we actually do have diversity because the chat
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  bot that we created is supposed to be diverse.
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  Quote the fashion industry already has an issue with
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  diversity and instead of hiring the many women of color who are
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  trying to break into fashion journalism, sheer Lux thought
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  the best thing for them to do is to AI generate 1 TikTok user at
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  priscilla's creative corner said in a video.
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  Users have also described Reem as both unrelatable and
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  dystopian, noting that using an AI generated person as an editor
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  signals the decline of journalism as an industry.
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  Which is a bigger topic than I could ever address today.
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  I think there's a few things here.
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  I think the 1st is that like, it is cool that they're trying to
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  lean in to trends and trying to stay relevant.
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  That's one of the biggest challenges with media right now,
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  like journalism, media brands especially kind of the like more
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  traditional older style mastheads like you, just, we
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  just can't evolve as quick as like technology needs us to.
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  And so the industry is facing a lot of challenges because of it.
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  I mean, every other day there's like a new publication closing
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  or new layoffs happening. And I know it's not just in
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  journalism, but that's been greatly affected.
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  You know, we've been greatly affected by the advances in
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  technology and different platforms, like, you know,
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  TikTok and stuff. Like everybody wants citizen
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  journalism as opposed to journalism from a legitimate
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  publisher now. So there's just a lot of
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  changes. And I think it's cool that
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  Shirelax is trying to really like, adapt with that.
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  That's the only way that media will survive is if we can keep
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  up with what's going on and all the changes.
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  And it's very, very challenging. So this is like a cool idea.
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  And there are a lot of publishers that are using
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  ChatGPT or AI chat bots to or like AI in general to create
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  articles. And they do.
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  They are supposed to be properly labeled.
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  I'm sure most of them are not. But you know, this is not like
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  something new, like Reem is not like the first ever bought to
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  write an article that we're reading.
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  I think I'm sure all of you guys have read stuff online where
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  you're like, I don't think a human wrote this.
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  So I think it's cool that they're giving her like a
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  persona and they're trying to take some of that power back, I
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  think from big tech. I think that's cool.
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  But I also agree, if they have faced criticism in the past for
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  a lack of diversity on their editorial team, then this does
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  kind of feel like a Band-Aid to be like, see, if we could, we
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  would. And we did.
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  We did higher diversity, quote UN quote.
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  We just created her as a computer, as a robot.
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  So, yeah, I don't know. I think there's a lot of ethical
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  implications with this. I'm interested to see where it
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  goes. But I think in this case,
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  listening to a lot of the women who are speaking out and saying,
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  like, the fashion industry has such a diversity issue to begin
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  with, this missed the mark for me.
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  I think that's kind of where we need to like direct our
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  attention to in this particular case.
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  Anyways, guys, that's it for Mini Scroll today.
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  Thank you so much for listening. I have one of my favorite deep
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  dives that we've ever done going up tomorrow.
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  It's actually A2 parter, so part one is going up tomorrow.
• 12:46
  It's a creator deep dive. I wish we got an interview with
• 12:50
  her, but we unfortunately did not.
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  We did try, but I'm really excited for you guys to hear
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  this one. I can't believe we haven't
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  covered her before. We cover her all the time.
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  That's a hint. We cover her all the time in
• 12:58
  mini scroll, but we've never covered her on a deep dive.
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  Anyways, guys, thank you so much for listening.
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  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 13:07
  That just hits different after I literally opened our reviews to
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  like a million negative ones. Thank you so much.
• 13:13
  I love you guys and I will. Well, there'll be a deep dive
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  tomorrow, but I'll talk to you guys on Monday.
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  OK, bye.