Notices by 404 Media (404mediaco@mastodon.social)

AI slop is being weaponized by the internet's worst grifters, who do not care that it's not real as long as it helps them further their political agenda

https://www.404media.co/hurricane-helene-and-the-fuck-it-era-of-ai-generated-slop/

After months of digging and reporting, we have learned where Facebook's bizarre AI spam (like "Shrimp Jesus") comes from, who is making it, how it works, and how it is monetized.

Turns out Meta is directly paying people to spam FB with this stuff

https://www.404media.co/where-facebooks-ai-slop-comes-from/

NEW: Tumblr and Wordpress are preparing to sell user data to Midjourney and OpenAI, according to internal documentation we've reviewed

https://www.404media.co/tumblr-and-wordpress-to-sell-users-data-to-train-ai-tools/

Feds catch major darknet drug operation because the people running it put the return address of a real business that was confused when hundreds of pills of meth kept getting return-to-sendered

https://www.404media.co/darknet-drug-dealers-arrested-after-packages-of-meth-laced-adderall-repeatedly-returned-to-sender/