Keep scrolling for a full breakdown of the Shein influencer trip.
Colleen Ballinger has addressed the manipulation and grooming allegations against her by former fans in what internet users are calling the worst apology video in YouTuber history.
In a new video posted on her vlog channel to 3.38 million subscribers, Colleen strummed a ukulele and sang her âapologyâ for the entire 10 minutes.
Colleen starts by singing a song, âToxic Gossip Train,â where she calls the allegations âmisinformation.â
She claims she only wants to speak (sing, rather) about facts in this video and starts by admitting to being in group chats with her fans and that it was âweird.â
âMany years ago, I used to message my fans. Not in a creepy way like a lot of you are trying to suggest. It was more a loser kind of way, but I was just trying to be besties with everybody,â she says. âIn the beginning of my career, I didnât really understand that maybe there should be some boundaries there. There were times in the DMs when I would overshare details of my life, which is really weird of me.â
She then goes on to say her accusers donât actually want accountability, but rather they want âto ruin the life of the person you despise while you dramatise your lies and monetise their demise.â
On the behaviour of her internet character Miranda Sings, Colleen says that Miranda is PG-13 and that has always been on her website.
âSheâs PG-13. It says that on my website and itâs always been that way [âŠ] I didnât realise it was my responsibility to decide what was appropriate for every kid to see.â
Colleen addresses the grooming and predator accusations head-on. These accusations caught fire after a Twitter user named Becky opened up about how Colleen put her in a sexually explicit position as a teenager as part of a âfart jokeâ at a Miranda Sings performance.
âThe only thing that Iâve ever groomed is my two Persian cats. Iâm not a groomer. Just a loser who didnât understand that I shouldnât respond to fans and Iâm not a predator even though a lot of you think so. Because five years ago I made a fart joke.â
The response to Colleenâs video has been overwhelmingly negative, with fans and accusers alike saying the creator is making a mockery of a very serious situation, and has avoided taking any accountability.
Joshua Evans, Colleenâs ex-husband, also shared his thoughts on the âapologyâ via Twitterâ echoing the negative sentiment held by most viewers. Over the past few weeks, Joshua has been one of the few people associated with Colleen and the Ballinger Family to address the mounting allegations, apologising for promoting an âabusive fan/creator dynamic.â
Read the full story via Centennial World.
I shouldnât have to accept being in deepfake porn
A new piece by Nina Jankowicz for The Atlantic tells the first-person account of finding deepfake porn of herself onlineâ proving that the âfuture of AIâ is already here for women in the most damaging way.
Deepfake porn is a form of âsynthetic porn that is created via altering already-existing pornographic material by applying deepfake technology to the faces of the actors.â
In other words, it involves putting the face of a non-consenting personâ usually a woman public figureâ onto the body of porn actors in performance.
âAlthough they may provide cheap thrills for the viewer, their deeper purpose is to humiliate, shame, and objectify women, especially women who have the temerity to speak out,â writes Jankowicz.
Jankowicz is a disinformation expert and the author of How to Be a Woman Online and How to Lose the Information War. As a result, she has become very familiar with being the victim of deepfake porn.
 âBy simply existing as women in public life, we have all become targets, stripped of our accomplishments, our intellect, and our activism and reduced to sex objects for the pleasure of millions of anonymous eyes.â
A study by Sensity, a company that monitors synthetic media, estimates that 96% of deepfakes online are nonconsensual pornography of women. Jankowicz suggests the reason for this disproportion is twofold:
The people making deepfake media are mostly heterosexual men âwho value their own gratification more than they value womenâs personhood.â
AI systems are trained on what already exists on the internet. And the internet is filled with photos of womenâs bodies more than any other type of image.
In investigating the culture around deepfake pornography and the men who create it, Jankowicz says that overwhelmingly, men seem to believe they have the right to distribute this content because they are using publicly available photos and videos. Others feel that by labelling their content as fake or synthetic, they evade responsibility and can avoid legal ramifications.
âThese purveyors assert that their videos are for entertainment and educational purposes only. But by using that description for videos of well-known women being âhumiliatedâ or âpoundedââas the titles of some clips put itâthese men reveal a lot about what they find pleasurable and informative.â
She notes that the only way to protect women from becoming victims of deepfake porn is effective legislation.
Read the full story via The Atlantic.
Braxton Berrios denies cheating on Sophia Culpo with Alix Earle
In lighter news, TikTokâs favourite love triangle is unravelling on our very screens as Miami Dolphins player Braxton Berrios has taken to social media to deny rumours that he cheated on his longtime girlfriend with his new girlfriend, Alix Earle.
ICYMI, rumours about Alix and Braxton started circulating in February when Deuxmoi reported the two were âcanoodlingâ at a party. Prior to this, Braxton was in a relationship with influencer Sophia Culpo for two years. This led to rumours that Braxton had cheated with Alix while dating Sophia.
Alix and Braxton are still together, though neither has confirmed the official status of their relationship.
Following months of speculation, Sophia recently shared posts and liked comments supporting these claims. Sheâs also publicly stated that her relationship ended in âbetrayal.â
This week, Braxton took the rumours into his own hands, clarifying his relationship timeline.
âI donât want to fuel anything. I genuinely want all this to be over,â he said in a video on Instagram stories. âI was in a relationship [with Sophia] for two years. It was a good relationship. It was a healthy one, and toward the end of it, we had conversations along the lines of âwe just werenât working outâ.â
Braxton claimed that the pair just fizzled out and had broken up in January.Â
âIt had nothing to do with anything elseâŠ[or] anybody else, for that matter⊠Itâs been very weird and sad to see what has gone on since then⊠I have been quiet because it is totally out of character to talk about my private life publicly.âÂ
Sophia responded to Braxtonâs video on TikTok, sharing a picture of a man from the back â presumably Braxton â with February 13 as the date. Over the photo, she wrote that they âbroke up after the Drake concert Super Bowl weekend where he was seen making out with another girl.â That girl is believed to be Alix.
Read the full story via Centennial World.
Reddit tells protesting moderators that their communities âwill notâ stay private
In an update on how Reddark is going, Reddit is pressuring moderators who set their forums to private to open them up before next Thursday afternoon.
ICYMI, many subreddit moderators are protesting changes to Reddit's Application Programming Interface (API), the tool that software developers use to access data and create compatible apps with the platform.
With the new terms upping the price of Redditâs API access (which had previously been free), the policy changes are expected to deal a fatal blow to third-party apps that currently offer users alternative interfaces to access the platform.
According to Christian Selig, the creator of the widely-used third-party app Apollo, Reddit's proposed API pricing plans would cost approximately $20 million per year â a financially unsustainable price for the company.
Since June 12th, many of Redditâs most popular subreddits have âgone darkâ to stand in solidarity with these third-party apps.
Some have since opened back up, while others are now set to private.
This week, Reddit gave moderators of these forums a deadline to go public again or they will face consequences, according to messages seen by The Verge.
âThis community remaining closed to its [millions of] members cannot continue [âŠ] Wanting to take time to consider future moderation plans is fine, but that must be done in at least a ârestrictedâ setting. This community will not remain private beyond the timeframe weâve allowed for confirmation of plans here,â the messages reportedly say.
Read the full story via The Verge.
The Shein influencer trip: Why creators continue to support controversial brands
A new piece by Annabel Bendavid for Centennial World dives into the recent Shein influencer trip and questions why creators continue to support such a controversial brand despite the backlash.
This week, Shein sent a group of influencers to China to visit a factory and the companyâs âinnovation centreâ in a (relatively transparent) attempt to address the damaging narrative around the brand. Â
The creators shared their experiences on social media, speaking positively of their experience and of the brand. Many said they were impressed by Sheinâs high-tech infrastructure and the employeeâs working environment.Â
For example, AuJenĂ© Butler, better known as @itsjustajlove, posted a series of vlogs (which have since been deleted) during the trip and addressed the allegations around the brand in her captions.Â
âI spoke to many workers as well as other staff employees on many issues the company has been facing over the past few years. They have declined many of the allegations that have been put forth and are aiming to open up more to share their side,â she wrote in the caption of her âDay 3â vlog. âGoing to the facility really surprised me. They get thousands and thousands of orders daily from people around the world, but mainly in the United States, and over the past few years, they were able to create a system with high technology and workers that meet the daily demand they need to fulfill.â
The influencer accounts from the trip stand in stark contrast with the findings from multiple public investigations into the companyâs policies and practicesâ many of which claimed that employees are both underpaid and overworked.Â
According to the Swiss advocacy group Public Eye, factory employees, mostly migrants, work up to 75 hours a week, often working multiple shifts daily. Another investigation by U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 found that employees in two different factories worked up to 18-hour days, with some only paid the equivalent of four cents for each clothing item.Â
This inconsistency is something the internet has taken issue with. Users have questioned whether the creators on the trip saw legitimate, working Shein factories. Others suggest they likely visited a âstaged factory.â
As the attendees continue to defend Shein, internet culture enthusiasts have started questioning why they refuse to criticise the brand. Beyond potential contractual obligations with the company, many users have pointed to the lack of opportunities afforded to minority creators, making these groups more likely to support controversial brands like Shein.Â
Read the full story via Centennial World.
Is Caroline Calloway *actually* a scammer?
This weekâs infinite scroll podcast is a deep dive into influencer and author Caroline Calloway. We first break down who Caroline Calloway is and why sheâs internet famous before exploring her relationship with writer Natalie Beachâ a relationship that catapulted Carolineâs name into the mainstream, for better or worse. We finish by covering the reviews of her new book âScammerâ and what might be next for her.
Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.