Tatum Hunter

yep!

X says Grok account will stop undressing women. I just tested the standalone Grok app, which immediately complied with my request to undress a photo of me. This is illegal, according to the legal experts I spoke with.

X responds to outcry over Grok’s sexual images by charging users to create them Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot restricts the service to paid subscribers after outcry over images of undressed women and children. Critics say that is profiting from the problem.

Our story:

Critics say we're seeing a major social media app popularize -- and then profit from -- digitally undressing women and girls. This comes after Congress passed a federal anti-deepfake law last April.

4. Musk announces Thursday that Grok's image generation and editing will be limited to paying subscribers. X's in-app revenue jumps 20 percent day-over-day compared to the same period last year. Sexual deepfakes continue to soar -- about 60 percent of Grok's total public output.

3. Musk and X's head of product Nikita Bier take to the platform repeatedly to boast about X's soaring traffic and downloads.

2. X ignores questions from the press. Its safety account posts that the company is taking "action against illegal content" including child sex abuse material. Images depicting real women and children in degrading sexual clothing, poses and scenarios continue to pile up.

1. Users begin flocking to X to use its chatbot Grok to "undress" photos of real women and children. Unlike other image generators, Grok doesn't meaningfully limit these requests. Non-consensual deepfakes and child sex abuse material proliferates across X.

As we speak, non-consensual deepfakes are making the jump from shadowy forums and small nudify apps to mainstream social media. This has huge implications for women and children, who are almost always the targets. Here's what's happening: 🧵

X users tell Grok to undress women and girls in photos. It’s saying yes. The site is filling with AI-generated nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children. Owner Elon Musk responded with laughing emojis.

. @maryannefranks.bsky.social to @tatumhunter.bsky.social: “All law, in order to be effective, has actually got to mean something to the person who is potentially going to violate it, right? They have to be scared that they’re going to be punished in some way" www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

The industry has spent years fighting to contain non-consensual deepfakes. X just threw open the floodgates, seemingly with impunity?

She was MAGA’s favorite conspiracist. Then she dug into Charlie Kirk’s killing. The right-wing firebrand rose to prominence as a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist. Her latest claims have infuriated some of her former allies.

wrote about the rise and further rise of candace owens, whose unapologetically unhinged right-wing conspiracy theories have made her one of the most popular political voices in america — and are now causing headaches for the MAGA movement that backed her wapo.st/3MKjPwg w/ @tatumhunter.bsky.social

She was MAGA’s favorite conspiracist. Then she dug into Charlie Kirk’s killing. The right-wing firebrand rose to prominence as a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist. Her latest claims have infuriated some of her former allies.

Candace Owens has said that Bill Gates uses laced mosquitoes to make people allergic to beef, that the earth may not be round and that the moon landing was “fake and gay.” Her MAGA fellows draw the line, however, at her comments on Charlie Kirk and Israel.

wapo.st/3MKjPwg

This has interesting implications for bigger conservations about mental health, infinite scroll, self-diagnosis and the attention economy. I hope you give it a read! From @jeremybmerrill.com and me.

TikTok’s mental health ‘rabbit hole’? It’s not in your head. It’s not just you: Data shows the app’s algorithm makes some topics ‘stickier’ than others

wapo.st/3YsPDs0

Exclusive: TikTok's mental health "rabbit hole" is real. We used user data to show that the algorithm bends toward this content -- watching one mental health video spawns more similar videos than watching one about sports or Taylor Swift. And it takes more work to get it back out of your feed. 🧵/1

This country banned social media for young teens. Most don’t plan to comply. Pulling the plug on the biggest social media apps has broad support in parliament and the public at large. Most kids say they plan by whatever means to skirt it.

Today is day 1 of Australia's social media ban for kids under 16. Here's how that's going.

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Are you an Australian with tweenage kids? I'm a journalist who'd like to chat about your upcoming week, for reasons you've already guessed 🙃

DMs open, or tatum.hunter@washpost.com

whatever you please!

this year, mainstream corporate marketing took up the ragebait playbook, and you helped 😃

w @nitasha.bsky.social

“I understand that by posting all this on her TikTok that she has upped her ratings and gained followers,” Kathy McDonald-Choate, a congregant at East Somerset Baptist in Kentucky, told The Washington Post. “I would not want to be her on Judgment Day.”

This pastor fell for a TikTok stunt and sparked a debate on Christian charity An influencer’s test of churches went viral, rewarding the generous and shaming the stingy.

NEW: With SNAP benefits paused, one TikToker started calling churches and asking if they'd help with a can of baby formula.

Most said no. Then their responses went viral.

from me and @michelleboorstein.bsky.social

wapo.st/4oJywOk

This pastor fell for a TikTok stunt and sparked a debate on Christian charity An influencer’s test of churches went viral, rewarding the generous and shaming the stingy

This pastor fell for a TikTok stunt and sparked a debate on Christian charity.

Fascinating reporting with me and @tatumhunter.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

"It's a log in MAGA's fire," political scientist Richard Flanagan told me. For Mamdani's opponents, his continued success is grist for the content mill.

In the hours following Mamdani's victory, major conservative figures and elected officials fired off pithy posts about the downfall of America. Many referenced mandatory hijabs or terrorism. The NRSC sent a flurry of tweets and emails accusing candidates across the country of being "mini-Mamdanis."

MAGA is trying to turn Zohran Mamdani’s win into their gain New York City’s new mayor enjoyed a meteoric rise to online notoriety. The internet’s talking heads are just getting started.

NEW from me: Mamdani clinched a win in New York City. So why do ring-wing internet figures seem so...gleeful?

wapo.st/4qLb5FQ

good news!! instagram is fixing teen safety. here’s a short history of all the other times they’ve fixed teen safety one day before or after landing in hot water with regulators.

Fake AI videos mocking dead celebrities are going viral. We talked to their families, and they're horrified.

We break down OpenAI's Sora 2 and the moral and legal problems of "synthetic resurrection."

Gift link: wapo.st/4nNKzd3 w/ @tatumhunter.bsky.social

I looked into those weird little soap operas you see on tiktok and reels, and I was genuinely flabbergasted by the size of this industry. Many Qs: Is this the next format for major streaming apps, or ... TikTok video by Tatum Hunter - Washington Post

here's the deal with these: www.tiktok.com/@tatum_hunte...

Turning the Industry on Its Side: SAG-AFTRA Goes Vertical With New Agreement New Verticals Agreement Caters to Serialized Micro-Dramas in Mobile Formats

Ope! I reported in August about the quiet rise of vertical "micro-dramas": TV series in 60-second episodes designed to game your attention. Now the screen actors guild is officially recognizing this exploding industry with a new contract. 👀

www.sagaftra.org/turning-indu...