The 260th Block: Strava, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky, and Instagram
And all the AI troubles
This week…
Your reading time is about 5 minutes. Let’s start.
I reproduced a podcast script submitted for an assignment on climate law on a separate page. The page is for reference only, as my peers and I have already received our marks for the assignment but would like to share and learn from each other’s essays. I worked in podcasting for many years—albeit, mostly unscripted—and I was most terrified of not doing well writing for a medium I was supposed to be comfortable with.
Your Wikipedia this week: Belief perseverance
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 4chan, Discord, Wikipedia, and vegetative electron microscopy.
CORRECTION NOTICE: None notified. APPS
Running into open secrets: How to investigate using the Strava fitness app
Santiago Villa for GIJN:
During one of his routine jogs around Krasnodar’s Olimp sports complex, Stanislav Rzhitsky, a former Russian submarine commander accused of a missile attack in Ukraine that killed 23 civilians, was shot and killed. A few hours after the murder, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, notably “liked” the latest run Rzhitsky had uploaded to his Strava fitness app profile. Although Budanov said his department had nothing to do with the attack—despite allegations that this “like” could have been a sardonic signature—this incident reinforces the privacy vulnerabilities about Strava.
This popular US social media app for fitness enthusiasts, released in 2009 and available in 13 languages, boasts over 135 million users in more than 190 countries. According to its website, Strava’s about “more than tracking workouts—it’s where connection, motivation, and personal bests thrive.”
One of Strava’s most popular features allows users to share their athletic goals and achievements, as well as review, comment, and send kudos to peers. Described as “Facebook for runners,” Strava turns lonely workouts into social experiences by gamifying fitness and encouraging competitive sharing.
But journalists and open source researchers have been pointing out the privacy concerns linked to Strava for years. And this very same ability to share has given journalists—and others—the ability to pinpoint movements of soldiers in European and Israeli military bases, of French nuclear submarine crews, and of the security teams of a number of world leaders. Although these scandals linked to Strava have been making headlines since 2017, recent investigations reveal how use of the app by people who should be keeping a lower public profile have left them, and even top secret institutions, vulnerable.
Loosely linked:
French minister reports #SkinnyTok to regulator over anorexia concerns by Kim Willsher for The Guardian.
The hidden world beneath the shadows of YouTube’s algorithm by Thomas Germain for BBC.
Government censorship comes to Bluesky, but not its third-party apps yet by Sarah Perez for Tech Crunch.
Instagram tries using AI to determine if teens are pretending to be adults by Barbara Ortutay for AP.
AI
Deepfake porn is destroying real lives in South Korea
Yoonjung Seo and Mike Valerio for CNN:
South Korea has had a particularly fraught recent history of digital sex crimes, from hidden cameras in public facilities to Telegram chat rooms where women and girls were coerced and blackmailed into posting demeaning sexual content.
But deepfake technology is now posing a new threat, and the crisis is particularly acute in schools. Between January and early November last year, more than 900 students, teachers and staff in schools reported that they fell victim to deepfake sex crimes, according to data from the country’s education ministry. Those figures do not include universities, which have also seen a spate of deepfake porn attacks.
Loosely linked:
Humanoid workers and surveillance buggies: ‘embodied AI’ is reshaping daily life in China by Amy Hawkins for The Guardian.
How Italy’s journalists’ association is regulating AIs—and why it might not be enough by Alberto Puliafito for The Fix.
Brazil’s AI-powered social security app is wrongly rejecting claims by Gabriel Daros for Rest of World.
When AIs do science it will be strange and incomprehensible by Brandon Boesch (Morningside University, Iowa) for Aeon.
Other curious links, including en español et français
LONG READ | How two sisters led a decade-long effort to reform extremists by Anagha Nair for New Lines Magazine.
ILLUSTRATION | The US, Iran and the bomb by Danylo Hawaleshka for Al Jazeera.
PHOTO ESSAY | Monks, politicians, drag queens—all life is here: A trip to Japan’s Kyotographie festival by Fiona Shield for The Guardian.
España se lanza al incipiente campo de la computación cuántica, la tecnología que llega tras la inteligencia artificial por Carlos del Castillo en elDiario.es.
Mentiras, desinformación y… ¿podcasts? por Galo Abrain en Retina.
Autores hallan visibilidad, prestigio y protección contra censura en la publicación de libros de periodismo de investigación por César López Linares en LJR.
Le forum 4Chan pourrait ne jamais revenir, mais son héritage perdurera par Stéphanie Dupuis dans Radio-Canada.
Des spammeurs inondent TikTok de contenu pro-conservateur par Sam Harper dans Pivot.
De « Vert » à « Disclose », le don s’installe parmi les modèles économiques des médias par Sabine Blanc dans La revue des médias.
What I read, listen, and watch
I’m reading The Translator (2013) by Nina Schuyler about a translator who lost the ability to communicate in her mother tongue after an accident. At a loss for words, quite literally.
I’m listening to The Decibel about the strategists, advisors and campaign directors inside the Liberal and Conservative war rooms, ahead of the 2025 Canada elections on Monday.
I’m watching a former Palantir employee talk to More Perfect Union about the
sketchytech company.
Chart of the week
In 2024, only four countries exceeded a UN target to spend 0.7 per cent of gross national income on overseas development aid, wrote Emma Batha for Context.