There Are No Girls on the Internet

Topics include Substack's Nazi content removal, dating app shortcomings, eBay's harassment scandal, SEC misinformation, Elon Musk's controversial tweet, George Carlin AI stand-up, and video game voice actors' criticism of AI technology.

Harvard donor Bill Ackman pushed for the resignation of Harvard's first Black woman president, Dr. Claudine Gay, for what he says is a history of academic plagiarism. An independent review panel cleared her of misconduct, but the allegations continued and led to her resignation. Now Ackman’s wife, Dr. Neri Oxman, is also being accused of plagiarism in her academic work.    In the aftermath of Dr. Gay’s resignation from Harvard, here’s how Ackman has responded to the allegations against his wife. Meanwhile, their troubling connection to Jefferey Epstein resurfaces.    Full video of this episode is available on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/tangotiSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The podcast discusses the resignation of Dr. Claudine Gay, the first black woman president of Harvard, and explores the campaign led by right wing activist Christopher Rufo to get her fired. It highlights the role of legacy media outlets in legitimizing his bad-faith framing and celebrates her resignation as evidence of a return to meritocracy. The hosts also touch on controversies in higher education, dynamics of having a Black woman leader, the misconceptions surrounding DEI and Black women's success, and the frustration of constantly defending their existence.

Have you been seeing a lot of content on social media romanticizing women not working outside of the home?  Jo Piazza, host of the hilarious and insightful podcast Under the Influence, breaks down why we're seeing so much trad wife content right now.   #TradWives: sexism as gateway to white supremacy: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/countering-radical-right/tradwives-sexism-gateway-white-supremacy/ Listen to Under the Influence: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/under-the-influence-with-jo-piazza/id1544171101See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Netflix’s Inventing Anna presents a flashy version of fake German heiress Anna Delvey’s scams. Rachel Deloache Williams was scammed out of $62,000 by Anna on a disastrous trip to Morocco.  Rachel discusses true crime shows like Inventing Anna and Hulu’s The Dropout and what it means for all of us when liars and scammers are elevated and amplified.   Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin Almost Ruined My Life. Now She’s Being Rewarded for Her Crimes: https://time.com/6146419/inventing-anna-rachel-williams-anna-delvey/ Check out Rachel’s book My Friend Anna: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/My-Friend-Anna/Rachel-DeLoache-Williams/9781982114107See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to pay Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, two election workers he baselessly maligned in Georgia, almost 50 million dollars. And they might even sue him again! Here’s how we got here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're taking a break from our usual content to share a new podcast from iHeart's Outspoken network, Afterlives: The Layleen Polanco Story. You can check out the rest of the show here: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-afterlives-the-layleen-po-127683074/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cait Corrain is an author who had a highly anticipated book called Crown of Starlight coming out in May of 2024. But now her book has been shelved after she admitted to using Good Reads to review bomb a bunch of other writers’ forthcoming books. Most of her targets were Black or queer, while Corrain is white. This story has a LOT of twists and turns, including her inventing an obviously fake conversation with an obviously fake person. Canadian author Xiran Jay Zhao was the first person I saw to bring it to wider attention online. They first noticed that Cait’s book Crown of Starlight was getting good reviews from the same accounts who were trashing other books, some of which were not even out yet.  Xiran Jay Zhao also created a 31-page Google document of screenshots showing a bunch of the alleged-but-now-admitted fake GoodReads accounts, screenshots of conversations, and other damning receipts. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__mO1uqIqcmupBAPKwXDzlUbZIwtY6fKf0S1Y0SNz0E/edit See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a Friday news roundup! If you’re new here and looking for a deeper dive into a single topic, check out the episode on Alex Jones from Dec 12, or the (forthcoming) episode on Tuesday Dec 19 about the wild story of an author who created fake Goodreads accounts to review-bomb a bunch of other authors. It’s part scam, part Greek tragedy, and you’ll definitely want to hear it.  Want to skip the banter and get right to the news? Head to around the 6 minute mark GLAAD’s report on transphobia online: All Social Media Platform Policies Should Recognize Targeted Misgendering and Deadnaming as Hate Speech: https://glaad.org/social-media-platform-policies-targeted-misgendering-deadnaming-hate-speech/ Part one of Bridget discussing Georgia election workers Shaye and Ruby Freeman on Internet Hate Machine: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/part-one-why-trump-targeted-two-black-election-workers/id1648497305?i=1000590820764  Part two of Bridget discussing Shaye and Ruby Freeman: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/part-two-why-trump-targeted-two-black-election-workers/id1648497305?i=1000592261007  Congress Pulls Bill That Would Massively Expand Surveillance After 'Dramatic Showdown': https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3wkdg/fisa-surveillance-bill-congress-pulled Speaker Johnson adds short term FISA extension to National Defense Bill: https://prospect.org/civil-rights/2023-12-12-mike-johnson-ndaa-surveillance-reform/  Twitter Is Just Running Ads for Stealing Semen Now: https://www.404media.co/twitter-x-ads-stealing-semen-make-a-mom/ Hugging Face’s Rules of [Press] Engagement for writing about women in tech: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rules-press-engagement-emily-witko--ohlzf/  Discord bands misgendering: https://www.them.us/story/discord-explicitly-bans-misgendering-and-deadnaming-on-its-platform  Chat GPT might be on winter break (and so are we). As ChatGPT gets “lazy,” people test “winter break hypothesis” as the cause: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/12/is-chatgpt-becoming-lazier-because-its-december-people-run-tests-to-find-out/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been let back on Twitter after being banned for building a media empire on the lie that the Sandy Hook school shooting wasn't real. When Elon first took over Twitter he said he would never let Jones back on, but that promise turned out to be worth as much as most of Elon’s promises. This week he rolled out the red carpet and sat down for a chit chat in Twitter spaces to talk about how much they both love free speech and hate grieving parents.  In honor of Elon Musk and Alex Jones’s new friendship, we’re re-airing this episode about the defamation trial of Alex Jones in which he was found guilty and ordered to pay over a billion dollars to the families of the victims he profited by lying about. These people make us sick, but enjoy the episode!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.