There Are No Girls on the Internet

Everyone is asking questions about Trump’s connections to Jefferey Epstein, but the president isn’t the only powerful person or institution linked to him. You might know that connections to convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein led to the resignation of the director of the MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito, after a Ronan Farrow exposé.  But fewer people know that Arwa Mboya, an MIT student and Kenyan virtual reality programmer, bravely called for Ito to step down before Farrow’s piece. She was isolated and attacked for her bravery, before history proved her right. Mboya talks about how the bravery and community of women and girls gave her the courage to take a stand.  Here’s our recent episode looking at Trump’s connections to Epstein: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epstein-files-firestorm-shows-the-power-of/id1520715907?i=1000718024227See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Bridget recaps the tech stories you might have missed with longtime friend of the show indispensable Internet advocate Abbie Richards. She is the Steve Martin of TANGOTI. If you're not following Abbie on TikTok you're missing out! www.tiktok.com/@tofology US labor hero and friend of the show Chris Smalls, co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union, was beaten and choked by IDF soldiers while trying to deliver aid to Gaza. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/29/chris-smalls-amazon-labor-union-gaza Substack sent a push notification for an openly nazi blog, continuing their streak of promoting nazis. https://www.usermag.co/p/substack-sent-a-push-alert-promoting-nazi-white-supremacist-blog The Discourse Is Broken- How did a jeans commercial with Sydney Sweeney come to this? https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/07/sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-ads/683704/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo First YouTube, and now LinkedIn, have changed their policies to allow discrimination against trans people: https://www.advocate.com/business/youtube-scraps-gender-identity-protection and https://www.advocate.com/news/linkedin-transgender-deadnaming-misgendering-policy TikTok adds footnotes in an attempt to add context to misinformation and fake content. We hope it helps! https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/rolling-out-tiktok-footnotes-in-the-us Community Notes and its Narrow Understanding of Disinformation: https://www.techpolicy.press/community-notes-and-its-narrow-understanding-of-disinformation/ Trump Admin uses songs without permission to create cruelty porn. These people have no shame. https://newrepublic.com/post/198600/white-house-jet2-holiday-meme-deportation There's Already a Class Action Lawsuit Against the Viral 'Tea' App: https://lifehacker.com/tech/tea-app-class-action-lawsuit Spotify threatens to delete accounts that fail age-verification: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/07/30/spotify-threatens-to-delete-accounts-unless-users-prove-the/ Not just YouTube: Google is using AI to guess your age based on your activity - everywhere: https://www.zdnet.com/article/not-just-youtube-google-is-using-ai-to-guess-your-age-based-on-your-activity-everywhere/ If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Tea App promised a safe, anonymous space for women to share personal experiences with men they dated. Instead, it leaked their private data.    There’s tons of inaccurate, fear mongering information about the leak out there. So in this episode, we’ll break down what happened with the Tea App leak, why it matters, and what it reveals about tech’s ongoing failure to take women’s privacy seriously.    A Second Tea Breach Reveals Users’ DMs About Abortions and Cheating: https://www.404media.co/a-second-tea-breach-reveals-users-dms-about-abortions-and-cheating/   Women Dating Safety App 'Tea' Breached, Users' IDs Posted to 4chan: https://www.404media.co/women-dating-safety-app-tea-breached-users-ids-posted-to-4chan/   Miami New Times’ longread on Girl Don’t Date Him: https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/blind-date-6335973   Tea: Inside the new app where women anonymously review men: https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/68302/1/tea-the-new-app-where-women-anonymously-review-men   'It's fun watching you burn': Man suing women for defamation actually harassed them on dating apps, defendants say: https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/its-fun-watching-you-burn-man-suing-women-for-defamation-actually-harassed-them-on-dating-apps-defendants-say/ If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com!    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/  tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc  youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bridget runs through this week's tech news you might have missed with the brilliant Dr. Titi Shodiya, co-host of the excellent podcast Dope Labs. LISTEN TO DOPE LABS! https://www.dopelabspodcast.com/ FOLLOW DR. TITI SHODIYA: https://www.instagram.com/dr_tsho/ Debate-style video roils internet after participant openly identifies as fascist: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/jubilee-debate-video-fascist-participant-roils-internet-rcna220303 Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Macron sue right-wing podcaster Candace Owens over false claims first lady was born a man: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/french-president-emmanuel-macron-brigitte-macron-sue-candace-owens-claims-first-lady-born-man/ Trump’s order to block ‘woke’ AI in government encourages tech giants to censor their chatbots: https://apnews.com/article/trump-woke-ai-executive-order-bias-f8bc08745c1bf178f8973ac704299bf4 ICYMI TANGOTI ep: She Called a Black Child a Slur — Then Raised $700K. Kiandria Demone Is Saying ‘Not Today’: https://podcasts.apple.com/sn/podcast/she-called-a-black-child-a-slur-then-raised/id1520715907?i=1000708401994 If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Remember the 2010s? Ubers were cheap, Obama was president, and you could get legitimately famous just by having a lot of Twitter followers. Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton, hilarious and insightful hosts of Bridget's favorite podcast Celebrity Memoir Book Club, take us back to the era when viral tweets led to real book deals — and what those memoirs reveal about Internet fame, publishing, and the culture we've created. LISTEN TO CELEBRITY MEMOIR BOOK CLUB: https://www.youtube.com/@celebritymemoirbookclub   If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com!    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week.   instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/    tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc    youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Epstein story won’t die and in MAGA circles, it’s becoming a problem. This episode breaks down why the conspiracy has such staying power, who’s running with it now, and what it reveals about the fractures inside the far right.   Jeffrery Epstein, MIT and the Grad Student Who Spoke Up: https://omny.fm/shows/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet/jeffrery-epstein-mit-and-the-grad-student-who-spok Remember Trump’s Influencers on the Epstein Files? They’re Pissed: https://www.yahoo.com/news/remember-trump-binder-influencers-epstein-203415282.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALE2eGyVYVuUQ7Iw3XlXK-4gRnbqSdJzXZ25_u0zYLgHcdvssTEXHrj7bNMZM_tlZtpkHkqfKXtoYpqHRsbODfjex4rE0acMyK2n76_-apXRlkREXs1EVL_Dtuxy_HLmIzt0xg-1YLaphFhSffgLJNE-ckWGgjWYy6Dk9NtkGR6c The FBI's Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Had Nearly 3 Minutes Cut Out: https://www.wired.com/story/the-fbis-jeffrey-epstein-prison-video-had-nearly-3-minutes-cut-out/ These are the most significant allegations in Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre's unsealed memoir: https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-jeffrey-epstein-accuser-virginia-roberts-unsealed-memoir-2019-8 I was abused by Jeffrey Epstein. Why is Trump silencing me?: https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/trump-jeffrey-epstein-victims-speak-out-silencing-l7ql9jn2b      If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2020, Target pledged to support Black creators and communities. Target spotlighted their products, and made headlines with its public commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. But now, those promises look like little more than PR spin. Black creators and vendors who once collaborated with the brand say they weren’t just abandoned — they were exploited. From one-sided partnerships to pay-to-play marketing schemes,  this episode investigates how a major corporation cashed in on the racial justice movement… and then just walked away. We speak to Kiara Imani, a former Target vendor who is one of the Black entrepreneurs  now speaking out. She was originally thrilled when a game she designed, "LikeU Cards," was included in Target's collection, only to quickly realize she was caught up in a pay-to-play scheme that was more about Target's PR than actually selling her product.  She's also an attorney and author of the book Therapy Isn’t Just For White People. She explains what went down, what she was promised versus what she actually got, and unpacks the backlash, the boycott, and why some former Target collaborators are now calling it what it really was all along: a scam. Kiara’s TikTok about Target: https://www.tiktok.com/@kiara_imani_will/video/7481347076442606894 Buy Kiara book Therapy Isn’t Just For White People: https://www.mahoganybooks.com/9781735145884 Check out LikeU cards: https://likeucards.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqCZCnuFV-4u8l9PynC9x1nNFbC0DCrVv0_IYqoRsPTvnt-FEX5 If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: Capturing The New York Times https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capturing-the-new-york-times/id1570901784?i=1000620995068 Listen and subscribe to the new season of Afterlives spotlighting Marsha P Johnson: https://www.afterlivespod.com/ Listen to Outlaws: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-outlaws-with-ts-madison-273947965/ Joe Rogan is SHOCKED that Donald Trump, whom he helped elect, is doing the awful things he consistently said he was planning do: https://gizmodo.com/joe-rogan-feels-trump-betrayed-him-on-immigration-2000624426 Is Jeff Bezos buying the iconic fashion magazine Vogue as a gift for his new wife? Our intuition says, "maybe!": https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14878623/Jeff-Bezos-Vogue-magazine-wedding-Lauren-Sanchez.html A new Virginia law to protect privacy is causing some online stores like Walmart.com to display a pop-up that asks shoppers to surrender their privacy or else shop someplace else. Progress? https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/pop-up-on-walmart-website-warns-virginia-shoppers-about-their-sexual-health-data/3952472/ The NY Times loves helping racist villains like Christopher Rufo disingenuously smear people, even if it means breaking their own reporting standards. This time, they're helping smear NYC Mayoral candidate Mamdani: https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1942057201327353964 Linda Yaccarino, former CEO of X, is calling it quits. Elon gave her a frosty goodbye and took away her blue check: https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/xs-ad-business-improved-under-departing-ceo-linda-yaccarino-but-its-still-tough-times-ahead/ If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is behind Candace Owens’ rebrand? Bridget explains Owens’ new playbook to Anney and Sam over at the podcast Stuff Mom Never Told You.   If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com!    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week.   instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/    tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc    youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TikTok’s “Princess Treatment”  trend has gone viral, and so has Bridget's response. It started with creator Courtney Joelle, whose videos depict how she sits silently at restaurants while her husband orders for her, speaks for her, and calls it “being a princess.” Millions of views later, Bridget wonders: is this soft girl femininity… or something more dangerous? Check out Bridget’s viral TikTok response, which got SO MANY MORE VIEWS than her other videos, even though those other videos take WAY longer to produce. It's clear what the algorithm wants! https://www.tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc/video/7520108357177330975 If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.