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 discuss feeling like a hamster on a treadmill, reporting that leads to real-life change, and reflecting on protest.
JOSEPH: As you know I think a lot about impact: how to generate it, what stories may lead to it, how to write stories that increase the chances of it happening, etc. This week we had two great pieces of impact: Emanuel reported that Apple removed multiple nonconsensual AI nudify apps from its App Store, signaling a change in tactic from the tech giant. And my stories leading to Discord taking action against a site that was scraping and selling Discord user messages for $5.
The particular circumstances around both of these stories are different, and I think show the different way journalists can approach generating impact. With Emanuel’s first, these apps were, as far as we know, unknown to Apple. Emanuel made the decision to not publish the specific names of the apps in his article so as to not amplify them, which could lead to more harm. These sorts of apps are being actively used in schools by students to harass one another and their teachers; making it easier for people to find such apps, on balance, seems to raise the risk of harm while not adding all that much to the piece, journalistically.