Good Monday Morning!

It’s January 13th. Spotlight is off next week for MLK Day. We’ll be back with you on January 27.

Today’s Spotlight is 990 words, about 3.5 minutes to read.

📰 3 Headlines to Know Now

Science Journal Editorial Board Quits

Over the winter holiday, the Journal of Human Evolution’s editorial board resigned en masse. Outsourced production, cost-cutting on editorial support, and AI formatting glitches—introduced without transparency were on the complaint list. It’s the 20th mass resignation from a science journal in two years, per Ars Technica.

Getty, Shutterstock Merge in $3.7B Deal

Getty and Shutterstock are merging in a $3.7 billion deal, creating a major player in the visual content market. The combined company will operate under Getty’s name and stock ticker. Both have experimented using AI, and Getty has tested an AI creation tool.

TikTok Ban Looms Sunday

WaPo star tech journalist Shira Ovide explains how a potential TikTok ban might unfold. If the Supreme Court rules to uphold the app’s ban, users could turn to workarounds like VPNs or TikTok’s website. Enforcement is still murky.

Americans Want Fact Checking

By The Numbers

Cyber Rules Worry Small Providers

Running Your Business

New proposals from U.S. regulators would require healthcare providers to beef up cybersecurity after breaches exposed the medical and personal data of 170 million Americans in 2024. Smaller providers are raising alarms, calling the proposed guidelines cost-prohibitive.

This slippery slope starts with good intentions, as they often do, but stifling smaller providers doesn’t just risk innovation—it could crush it. Consolidation might sound like a fix, but monopolistic healthcare systems can bring inefficiencies, higher costs, and reduced flexibility for patients and businesses alike. Smaller organizations could be locked out entirely—leaving the big players to dictate terms and vulnerabilities.

Spotlight on Meta’s Punts and Fumbles

The big picture: Meta is running its familiar playbook: when faced with tough defense, punt the ball away. Its latest move to dramatically scale back content oversight and lean into political content shows how the company fumbles responsibility when the pressure mounts.

What’s new: Two major changes just dropped.

• Meta is ending its partnership with professional fact-checkers
• The company has loosened hate speech policies, including allowing comments that dehumanize trans people by referring to them as “it” instead of their proper pronouns

The bottom line: Users will have fewer protections against harmful content and misinformation at a time when both are becoming more sophisticated.

Why it matters: These platforms shape what billions of people see daily. The shift from professional fact-checkers to user policing is like replacing security guards with a neighborhood watch.

The details: Meta’s new approach, called “Community Notes,” lets users — not professionals — identify false information. The policy changes also explicitly allow dehumanizing language against transgender individuals, marking a significant shift from previous protections. Content that was once banned for promoting hatred can now remain on the platform and seen by anyone.

The scoreboard: Meta’s game plan has become predictable. When the defensive line of public scrutiny tightens, they drop back and punt:

• Cambridge Analytica: Backed away from data privacy reforms after millions of users’ information was exploited
• Myanmar crisis: Minimized platform responsibility during humanitarian crisis
• Capitol attack: Initially banned Trump, then quietly softened political content stance

What insiders say: “Every election brings recalibration. When things get too hard or politically risky, they punt,” writes Katie Harbath, Meta’s former public policy executive who oversaw global elections.

4th quarter stakes: As AI makes misinformation more sophisticated, Meta’s decision to punt on professional oversight leaves users playing defense against increasingly sophisticated false information.

What’s next: Users will need to be more vigilant about what they read and share. The burden of distinguishing fact from fiction is shifting from professionals to everyday people like us.

Go deeper: Meta defends these changes as promoting free speech, but critics see political expediency winning over user safety — again.

Notebook LM by Google Expands Features

Practical AI

Notebook LM is rolling out updates, including the ability to interject your own speech into its mock podcast feature. Its AI-synthesized speech is improving too, but proceed with caution: as a beta product with no privacy guarantees, it’s not the place for sensitive information.

California Combats Fire Misinformation

Debunking Junk

Besieged by misinformation and disinformation about devastating Los Angeles fires, California’s government has launched a page to debunk false claims with fact-based refutations.

Free Streaming for Walmart+ (and More)

Protip

Walmart+ members get free Paramount+ Essential ($79.99 value), plus perks like free shipping and fuel discounts.

Also:

• Instacart+: Includes Peacock Premium ($79.99 value)
• DashPass: Offers Max With Ads ($99.99 value)

Details at Mashable

FEMA’s Helpful “Inner Circles”

Screening Room

Underwater Bulldozer Prototype

Science Fiction World

Komatsu debuted a sci-fi-worthy underwater bulldozer at CES 2025. It operates 23 feet deep with a 450 kWh battery—enough to power a home for 15 days or charge 4.5 EV batteries. It’s designed for dredging, restoration, and disaster prep.

Smart Glasses Debut for Knee Surgery

Tech for Good

Vuzix debuted smart glasses for translation, captioning, and medical use—like guiding knee surgeries to align pins and improve recovery rates.

Track LA Fires in Real Time

Coffee Break

Stay informed about LA’s wildfires with trusted sources:

• Cal Fire: The go-to for official updates and firsthand data
• Watch Duty: A highly trusted app providing real-time alerts and wildfire tracking

Skip the noise and misinformation—these tools let you see the data for yourself.

Sign of the Times

Spotlight #522

Good Monday Morning!

It’s January 6th. The Supreme Court will hear last-minute arguments on Friday regarding TikTok’s ability to operate in the U.S. A bill signed last April requires owner ByteDance to sell the company to an American entity or cease U.S. operations.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,351 words, about 5 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know Now

Treasury Confirms Chinese Hack 

The Treasury Department alerted lawmakers to a hack by a Chinese intelligence agency that accessed unclassified documents. Earlier this year, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s email was also breached by the Chinese government.

Universal USB-C Requirement Expands Globally

Europe now mandates USB-C compatibility for all small and medium portable electronics. India will follow later this year, with California adopting the rule starting January 1, 2026.

What this means for you: Expect streamlined charging and fewer proprietary cables as the USB-C standard becomes universal.

Court Strikes Down FCC Net Neutrality Rules

A federal appeals court invalidated the FCC’s net neutrality rules, ending a policy introduced under Obama, repealed under Trump, and now overturned in court. Net neutrality remains state law in California, Colorado, and Washington. 

Net Neutrality Explainer: Net neutrality means internet providers must treat all data equally—no blocking, throttling, or prioritizing specific websites or services. 

Top Websites by Traffic

By the Numbers

Game Finds Success in Military Market

Running Your Business

A British family business turned a consumer wargame into a global defense tool, used by militaries like the Pentagon and NATO to simulate battles and test strategies. The software’s detailed accuracy and adaptability have made it indispensable for training and analysis.

Behind The Story: This unassuming game, created by non-military developers, first caught an Air Force officer’s attention for modeling fuel consumption in battle scenarios. Today, it’s used by militaries worldwide—a powerful reminder that the company you end up building may not be the one you originally envisioned. See it in action via this gift link.

Spotlight on Digital Consent vs. Crime

The internet’s reach is staggering: 5.5 billion people online, billions of visits to adult video sites monthly. It’s an amplified digital evolution of 1950s peep shows and 1980s video stores. The gamut runs from harmless indulgence and ethical dilemmas, all the way to outright crimes, each shaped by technology and society.

Where Consent Thrives

Adult platforms like OnlyFans and Pornhub represent consensual expression for many. Musician Lily Allen recently revealed she earns more from selling photos of her feet on OnlyFans than from Spotify royalties created by nearly 8 million listeners—an illustration of empowered monetization in the digital age. But even here, cracks show. 

Pornhub’s self-blocking in 16 U.S. states highlights age-verification laws’ unintended consequences—driving users to unsafe, unregulated corners of the web or complying with age-verification processes that risk creating sensitive databases tied to personal identities.

The Darker Side

Not all online interactions respect consent. Crime is rampant. 

• Revenge Porn: Intimate photos weaponized for humiliation remain a constant occurrence, with platforms like Instagram struggling to combat misuse.
   
• Sextortion: Scammers exploit victims’ explicit photos, threatening exposure unless paid—a scheme tied to suicides of at least 20 boys since 2021.
   
• CSAM: Child sexual abuse material proliferates through live-streaming apps, with victims often coerced by relatives or strangers exploiting poverty.

These aren’t isolated incidents. Even apps like Spotify faced criticism for surfacing explicit content, raising concerns about moderation and access.

Simultaneously, AI-powered chatbots and platforms like Muah.ai enable users to create disturbing abuse-simulating interactions, exposing the dark side of poorly-regulated AI. 

Cultural and Ethical Tensions

Our discomfort in defining boundaries shows in controversies like deepfakes targeting Congresswomen—1 in 6 has been victimized by AI-generated explicit imagery. This disproportionately affects women, echoing broader issues of systemic misogyny, exploitation, and sexual violence committed against women for commercial purposes. 

Meanwhile, creators like Lily Allen and influencers like “Jacky Dejo,” a child influencer navigating the monetization of her platform, walk the tightrope between empowerment and the risks of sexualization online. 

Legislative Struggles

Laws are painfully slow to adapt. Efforts to address age verification, deepfakes, and sextortion reveal a fractured legal landscape. 

• Age Verification: Laws meant to protect children risk exposing adults’ sensitive data, fueling privacy concerns, and in Pornhub’s case, removing itself from markets.
   
• Deepfake Regulation: Few states address this emerging harm, leaving victims with little recourse. The fact that lawmakers themselves are victims without recourse paints a bleak picture.
   
• Child Safety: Proposals like the DEFIANCE Act, which seeks to strengthen penalties and expand protections against CSAM and sextortion, face challenges due to concerns about overreach and potential free speech violations.

Courts are stepping in. Tennessee’s age-verification law was blocked over privacy violations, while the Supreme Court will soon weigh whether age verification violates the First Amendment.

AI and Tech’s Role

Technology accelerates exploitation. Deepfakes, live-streaming apps, and “shameware” tools marketed to religious groups highlight tech’s complicity. Platforms profit from users’ vulnerability while failing to moderate content effectively.

Even prevention tools falter. Apps like Covenant Eyes, designed to deter pornography use among religious users, collect sensitive data that can be weaponized by abusive partners or hackers, further eroding trust in digital safeguards.

The Bottom Line

The online world mirrors our offline complexities—only faster and broader. Balancing freedom, ethics, and safety will require laws, tech, and cultural shifts to evolve together. For now, the spectrum of online sex remains a reflection of both our progress and our failures.

But it’s also a shared issue. Those billions of visits to the top video sites every month proves that.

Meta Halts AI Bots Mimicking Humans

Practical AI

Meta paused its new AI bot program, designed to mimic human behavior online, following public outcry. The bots, which posted content and carried an “AI by Meta” label, sparked concerns over authenticity and ethics.

False Claim Ties New Orleans Attack to Border

Debunking Junk

Fox News, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and President-elect Donald Trump amplified a false claim that the New Orleans attacker crossed the southern border days before the incident. Fox later corrected its report, clarifying the truck crossed into Texas in November with a different driver. The attacker, Shamsud Din Jabbar, was a U.S. citizen born in Texas.

OnlyFans Mods Impersonate Creators

Protip

The person messaging you on OnlyFans might not be the creator. Many accounts use low-wage chat moderators to impersonate creators and manage conversations, maintaining the illusion of direct interaction. Brendan Koerner posed as one in this expose.

Kellogg’s & Their Must See Rooster

Screening Room

Underwater Living Takes A Leap Forward

Science Fiction World

British startup Deep is launching the Vanguard habitat, supporting up to three scientists for week-long missions at depths of 200 meters. By 2027, the larger Sentinel system will house six scientists for months at a time. The goal is permanent underwater dwelling by 2030.

Evo Creates Genomes and Proteins

Tech For Good

Evo, a new AI from Stanford, offers hope for designing synthetic genomes to produce new drugs, clean up pollution, and enhance food production. While not perfect, its creators prioritized research over profit by making it publicly available.

ChatGPT’s Time Capsule of Your Year

Coffee Break

Reddit user Ok-Curve-6429 suggests a fun experiment: ask ChatGPT to deliver a “Spotify-esque Wrapped” review of your year. Their shared prompt:

“Can you give me a Spotify-esque wrapped of my time talking with you this year? Make it seem detailed and fun to read! Feature statistics, facts, and fun numbers for me to read about myself.”

ChatGPT nailed it with personalized stats and humor. Google Gemini and Meta’s AI stumbled, while Anthropic’s Claude huffed about not reusing chat history. Score one for OpenAI in my testing.

Sign of the The Times

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Good Monday Morning

It’s October 23rd.  Big Tech is reporting Q3 results this week: Microsoft and Alphabet tomorrow, Meta on Wednesday, and Amazon on Thursday. Expect a lot of product and holiday announcements.

Today’s Spotlight is 839 words — about 3 minutes to read.

Headlines to Know

• FCC takes steps to reinstate net neutrality, undoing Trump-era repeal to promote equal internet access.
   
• Minecraft, the bestselling video game ever, hits 300 million sales.
   
• Atlassian to acquire video messaging platform Loom for nearly $1 billion, enhancing its collaboration tools amid rising hybrid work demand.
   
• Best Buy to cease DVD, Blu-ray sales in-store and online by early 2024 while Netflix said that it would open 2 new stores weeks after stopping DVD mail fulfillment.
   
• Google expanded social media links in its Business Profiles, allowing organizations to link to 7 of its competitors.

Spotlight on Airbnb’s Course to Navigate The Holidays

In March, we highlighted the regulatory challenges Airbnb faced. We also talked about security risks, ratings inflation, and complaints from municipalities about lost tax revenue.

The situation has since escalated in New York, with Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky voicing concerns over stringent regulations that virtually eliminate short-term rental options. New York City regulations now limit the number of guests and mandate hosts to be present during a guest’s stay.

Even smaller cities, like Bozeman, Montana, and Palm Springs are considering cracking down on Airbnb properties, as are larger world capitals like Paris and London.

Airbnb’s strategy in the face of such regulatory disparities has been to engage with local governments, attempting to shape rules that protect local interests while also supporting the home-sharing economy. As the winter holidays approach, Airbnb is also investing in promoting longer-term rentals, a segment not typically subject to short-term rental laws. 

Beyond regulation, Chesky is addressing operational hurdles. Recently, he acknowledged cleaning fees as a “huge problem” and unveiled measures to tackle it. Following the launch of Airbnb’s total price display, over 260,000 listings have lowered or removed cleaning fees. 
 

These regulatory tussles remain significant for both hosts and guests. Most host applications filed with New York don’t meet the city’s requirements. Hosts, especially in restrictive markets like New York, face the dilemma of adhering to laws, which in many cases means removing their listings, or facing hefty fines. Guests, on the other hand, find fewer and often more expensive lodging options, making travel less accessible.

Practical AI

Quotable: “There are already a number of music lyrics aggregators and websites that serve this same function, but those sites have properly licensed publishers’ copyrighted works to provide this service,”

— Suit filed by music companies, including Universal, against Anthropic for allowing its AI chatbot to post music lyrics when responding to prompts.

Alexa Denies Election Results: The Amazon assistant is using information it sources online to tell its users that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen by a massive amount of election fraud,” in the latest horrifying example of Garbage In/Garbage Out.

 Tool of the Week: The AI Incident Database is a repository of user-supplied information about AI failures such as errant identifications of people or autonomous car collisions.  

Trends & Spends

Did That Really Happen — EU Wants Social Media Answers  

The EU is requiring that Meta, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) provide details on how they are combating Israel-Hamas conflict misinformation. Failure to comply with those regulations can result in fines of up to 6% of a company’s annual revenue.

Following Up — Online Tax Filing  

We’ve written extensively about how the federal government accused former participants in the Free Tax File program of improprieties. Now, the sector is navigating challenges resulting from the IRS’ announcement that it has expanded free direct filing to 13 states. 

Intuit is warning that the new program will hurt black taxpayers, a fraught statement that a researcher has already debunked. Meanwhile, the FTC has warned five tax prep companies that they may face penalties for tracking confidential data about taxpayers.

Protip — Hiding, Not Deleting Painful Photos

Google Photos now allows users to hide images of specific people or pets from their Memories feature, providing a respite for those troubled by past images. Lifehacker explains how.

Screening Room — Gallaudet & AT&T’s 5G Helmet