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News+: Backpage.com Versus the Feds

Andrew Orr ·

Backpage.com was a website modeled after the classifieds section of print. People could use it to post ads, and it also had a thriving section for adult ads. But the Feds seized it and arrested the owners. Christine Biederman wrote all about it.

The government indictment that triggered Lacey and Larkin’s arrests, United States v. Lacey, et al, includes 17 “victim summaries”—stories of women who say they were sexually exploited through Backpage. Victim 5 first appeared in an ad on the platform when she was 14; her “customers” made her “perform sexual acts at gunpoint, choked her to the point of having seizures, and gang-raped her.” Victim 6 was stabbed to death. Victim 8’s uncle and his friends advertised her as “fetish friendly.” The indictment accuses Backpage of catering to sexual predators, of essentially helping pimps better reach their target audiences.

This is part of Andrew’s News+ series, where he shares a magazine every Friday to help people discover good content in Apple News+.

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Shop Safe Online During 2019 Prime Day

Andrew Orr ·

2019 Prime Day will be held July 15-16, and Safe Smart Living put together some tips to help you stay safe when you shop online.

50 Million Americans are queuing up for Amazon Prime Day 2019. That’s a lot of credit cards swiped, personal data collected and online transactions, resulting in a huge potential threat for identity theft.

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Apple Killing AR Glasses and 'Product Design Troubles'

Andrew Orr ·

A report from Digitimes has been making the rounds, claiming that Apple killed its AR glasses project. Jesus Diaz thinks that it speaks to Apple’s “product design troubles.”

The report came yesterday from Digitimes, which has a mixed track record through its sources in component and manufacturing companies. It contradicts Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst who in March claimed that supply sources confirmed that Apple may start producing AR glasses as soon as the end of 2019.

I want Apple Glasses to succeed, so I hope the report isn’t true. If Apple can pull off AR glasses that actually look like glasses, it would definitely be, to quote Steve Jobs, magical. I don’t think Apple is killing the headset entirely, but they might be setting it aside for now, like they did with the HomePod.

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The YouTube Exec Working to Rid the Platform of Hatred and Scandal

Charlotte Henry ·

CNet had an enlightening interview with YouTube’s chief product officer Neal Mohan. Mr. Mohan, the de facto deputy to CEO Susan Wojcicki, discussed moving the platform beyond its recent scandals. He also disputed that it is a media company.

Mohan still thinks his job, “first and foremost,” is building out YouTube’s services. That includes developing new features for products like YouTube Music, a Spotify competitor, and YouTube TV, a cable cord-cutter service. But he acknowledges his role must go beyond that. Mohan says part of managing YouTube is “finding a balance” between the site’s open platform — anyone can post a video on the site — and its community guidelines that ban hate speech and abuse, a mission set forth by Wojcicki. “I view [dealing with the scandals] as part of focusing on the products,” he says. “Susan’s laid out this vision for YouTube. And my job — taking that direction and executing on that — consists not just of all this product innovation, but addressing what I feel like we should be on the hook for as part of our responsibility as this global platform. And I think they go hand in hand.”