Samantha Cole

Samantha Cole

Sam Cole is writing from the far reaches of the internet, about sexuality, the adult industry, online culture, and AI. She's the author of How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex.
242 posts
Pornhub Sees Surge of Interest in Tradwife Content, ‘Modesty,’ and Mindfulness
pornhub

Pornhub Sees Surge of Interest in Tradwife Content, ‘Modesty,’ and Mindfulness

Pornhub's Year in Review report for 2024 reveals a search for something very mindful, and very demure.
404 Media Objects to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Subpoena to Access Our Reporting
Announcements

404 Media Objects to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Subpoena to Access Our Reporting

404 Media's reporting on an internal Google privacy violation database has been subpoenaed by the State of Texas. We are fighting it.
Behind the Blog: Healthcare and its Stakeholders
Behind The Blog

Behind the Blog: Healthcare and its Stakeholders

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we talk about health insurance.
Moderators Across Social Media Struggle to Contain Celebrations of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Assassination

Moderators Across Social Media Struggle to Contain Celebrations of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Assassination

While Reddit mods and admin try to keep up with the site's "no violence" terms of use, Facebook and LinkedIn is reacting with tens of thousands of laughing emojis.
Major Health Insurance Companies Take Down Leadership Pages Following Murder of United Healthcare CEO
insurance

Major Health Insurance Companies Take Down Leadership Pages Following Murder of United Healthcare CEO

Following the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, multiple major health insurance companies have taken their executive leadership pages offline.
Your Bluesky Posts Are Probably In A Bunch of Datasets Now
Bluesky

Your Bluesky Posts Are Probably In A Bunch of Datasets Now

After a machine learning librarian released and then deleted a dataset of one million Bluesky posts, several other, even bigger datasets have appeared in its place—including one of almost 300 million non-anonymized posts.
Behind the Blog: How About Them Eggs
Behind The Blog

Behind the Blog: How About Them Eggs

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we talk about traffic, a return to Azeroth, egg prices and bullying.
Someone Made a Dataset of One Million Bluesky Posts for 'Machine Learning Research'
Bluesky

Someone Made a Dataset of One Million Bluesky Posts for 'Machine Learning Research'

A Hugging Face employee made a huge dataset of Bluesky posts, and it’s already very popular. 
WTF Is Stake, the Online Casino Using Viral Posts to Advertise Its Gambling Site
advertising

WTF Is Stake, the Online Casino Using Viral Posts to Advertise Its Gambling Site

Stake is an online casino and sportsbook that's using watermarks on viral meme accounts to advertise on social media. But it goes deeper than that.
Behind the Blog: 'I Reject It!'
Behind The Blog

Behind the Blog: 'I Reject It!'

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we talk about conjuring gaming memories, AI-generated Birkin bags, and a rejection of a certain type of criticism.
Spotify Has A Pirated Software Problem
spotify

Spotify Has A Pirated Software Problem

Playlists and "podcast" episode descriptions are hiding malware and piracy sites in plain sight on the streaming platform.
AI Companies Are Trying to Get MIT Press Books
AI

AI Companies Are Trying to Get MIT Press Books

The non-profit, university press asked its authors for input on how they'd prefer to see any hypothetical AI training deals handled, and plans to base future decisions on what they say, MIT Press told 404 Media.