The 257th Block: Art is political
The rest is AI
This week…
Your reading time is about 5 minutes. Let’s start.
Hey, it’s a little bit weird that some people got upset that anyone (me) would be on Hayao Miyazaki’s side in this Ghibli-style AI images, prompting huffy, petulant departures from TSB’s readership. Oh, well!
In any case, to more important things: I caught up with the 2025 Juno Awards where “edamame” rapper bbno$ (stick with me here) won the fan choice award and shared the stage with drag performers. I’m sorry, I really thought he was just a generic white cishet fboy but it turns out he is pro-trans, anti-AI art, and a certified Elon-hater, so suddenly I am a fan. This is the gay-for-pay I am in favour of.
He also cosplays, which is something my social media feeds have been showing me a lot of, lately. I have never been into cosplays ( I’m more of a furry ally, as some of you are aware) but I think cosplayers have been showing up a lot on my feeds after my Great Arcane Brainrot of 2024/2025™, and I have been a good supporter by watching these videos to completion, liking, sharing, and sometimes even commenting (thumbs up emoji) so that they can continue their hobbies (some of them are also doing it professionally).
Needless to say, the algorithm rabbit hole is real. And it has sparked me to start looking up all the old anime and manga I used to consume when I was younger, and discovered that there was a recent announcement of a live action adaption of one of my favourite manga ever, Norihigo Yagi’s Claymore. Welp, it’s going to be a disappointment, isn’t it?
I know that hyper-unrealistic fictional media like anime and manga, and by extension, cosplaying, get a bad rep outside its Otaku subculture, for various reasons. We’re not going to get into that. But I think cosplaying needs to be taken a little bit more seriously, and its role in sociopolitical revolutions needs to be studied a little bit more in depth. Notice that there have been several large protests recently, and while the Guy Fawkes masks are still a common protest fashion, think about what photo editors splash across the front pages of their publications: that Pikachu running away from riot police in Türkiye earlier in the week, protesters dressing up in the red robes from The Handmaid’s Tale in bodily autonomy protests across the U.S., and that Yellow Power Ranger at the French Yellow Vest protests. So much so that China started cracking down on “Halloween-related costumes” after protesters dressed up in costumes to critise the government’s COVID policies.
Of course, protest costumes are more often than not used to preserve anonymity, such as the case in China, but they also draw attention to a political message—and with the way social media works, their potential to go viral help with getting the message across a much wider digital audience. If we’re sticking with the premise that art is political, then cosplays are a form of political art.
Anyway, can someone cosplay Teresa of the Faint Smile from Claymore and tag me…
Your Wikipedia this week: Cosplay#During protests
And now, a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
ICYMI: The Previous Block was about fascists and thieves.
CORRECTION NOTICE: None notified. TRUTHINESS
Real video of Pikachu protester in Turkey followed by AI fakes online
Reuters:
Mass protests erupted in Turkey after Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the main political rival of President Tayyip Erdogan, was detained on March 19 and jailed on March 23, pending trial on corruption charges. On April 2, the main opposition party called for a mass commercial boycott.
Verified videos, of a protester in an inflatable Pikachu costume were shared on social media on March 27 and the day after.
Ismail Koceroglu, a photojournalist at Akdeniz University, who posted two videos of the person in the costume on Instagram, told Reuters in a direct message that he filmed them in Meltem, Antalya.
AI-generated images of Pikachu running among riot police then began to be shared online. One was posted with the caption, “Pikachu amidst the ongoing protests in Turkey. This is real by the way.”
April 2nd, the day after April Fools Day, is International Fact-Checking Day. Loosely linked:
Can you tell the difference between real and fake news photos? Take the quiz to find out by T.J. Thomson (RMIT University) for The Conversation.
Dealing with disinformation and political polarisation in relationships by Kara Fletcher (University of Regina), Carlos Alberto Rosas-Jiménez (McMaster University), and Jiaxing Li (University of Alberta) for The Conversation.
How memes spread conspiracy theories – and what to consider before sharing one by Emily Godwin (University of Bath) for The conversation.
AI MINOR
Instagram is full of openly available AI-generated child abuse content
Sofia Schurig, Leonardo Coelho and Tatiana Azevedo for Núcleo:
…Nucleo started an investigation in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network to assess the dissemination of illegal material involving children and adolescents, and was able to identify 14 Instagram profiles that were posting disturbing AI-generated images of minors.
All of those accounts followed the same visual pattern: blonde characters with voluptuous bodies and ample breasts, blue eyes, and childlike faces. These figures were depicted in various sexualized contexts: in bikinis, lingerie, or low-cut dresses. But these were not “adult models,” but rather representations of teenagers and even children. Each account analyzed by the investigation had the same visual theme, including eye color, skin tone, hair, and similar childlike features.
Also available in Portugues here. Loosely linked:
‘I didn’t start out wanting to see kids’: are porn algorithms feeding a generation of paedophiles—or creating one? by Harriet Grant for The Guardian.
To curb online sexual abuse of children, experts look to AI by Rod McCullom for UnDark.
K-Pop show mired in child exploitation controversy by Julian Ryall for DW.
Other curious links, including en español et français
LONG READ | From beats to ballots: What political rap lyrics tell us by Dwayne Oxford for Al Jazeera.
VISUAL TIMELINE | The Gaza paramedic killings by Lorenzo Tondo and Malak A Tantesh, and Julian Borger. Videos and graphics by Bryony Moore and Tural Ahmedzade for The Guardian.
El futuro de la investigación neurocientífica en instituciones que sirven minorías está en peligro por Carmen S. Maldonado-Vlaar en The Transmitter.
La Justicia confirma la condena de una youtuber por difundir una llamada íntima sin consentimiento por Alberto Pozas en elDiario.es.
Otra brecha de género: sexo, relaciones y orientación sexual por Paula Ruiz en CTXT.
ServiceOntario : le commissaire va enquêter sur le manque de français par Michel Bolduc dans Radio-Canada.
« Un baptême du feu » : quelles traces ont laissé les attentats chez les jeunes journalistes par Camille Regache dans La revue des médias.
Laisser une tâche aussi sensible dans les mains d'une machine, c'est dangereux : l'intelligence artificielle inquiète les interprètes des Nations unies par Jérémie Lanche dans Franceinfo.
What I read, listen, and watch
I’m reading The Genome Defense (2021) by Jorge L. Contreras. The DNA used to be considered the ‘final frontier’ of personal until neuroprivacy became a mainstream(ish) thing.
I’m listening to an episode of System Crash about the new aesthetics of fascism?
I’m watching SCMP’s deep dive on who is behind the scam network in Southeast Asia.
Chart of the week
To no one’s surprise, Western Europeans support retaliating on US tariffs, per YouGov’s Matthew Smith. Read more here.