Culture Club - Jealous Much, Meta？

00:00:00.000 it's a new era for harry styles zoe kravitz gets pushed off a pedestal and how facebook

00:00:12.560 is trying to sabotage tiktok we're maggie and jasmine and you're listening to culture club

00:00:17.860 our weekly chat about pop culture current affairs the internet and our lives 0.93

00:00:22.640 we acknowledge that the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people are the traditional custodians of this

00:00:33.740 land we are on today we would like to pay our respects to elders past present and emerging

00:00:39.620 and remember that sovereignty was never ceded we'd also like to celebrate their rich history

00:00:45.860 of culture and storytelling that we can learn from always was always will be aboriginal land

00:00:51.960 happy new harry styles music week yay so happy even though the song is kind of sad but

00:01:01.240 so happy to have fresh harry oh my gosh like how lucky are we it dropped did it drop on april

00:01:09.140 falls or the day before for us um so i was so nervous i'm like harry please don't do us dirty

00:01:15.820 and make this a joke so i'm very glad a new single came especially when there was some like really

00:01:20.120 weird April Fool's jokes this year I was like what is going on but then yes Harry pulled through

00:01:25.700 and released his first single of his new album Harry's House and the song is called As It Was

00:01:33.380 the music video is so so good he strips off at one point into his underwear which

00:01:40.240 is just a lovely bonus but it's just so beautiful I love all the dancing um all the edits on TikTok

00:01:48.820 are really good as it was is actually now the most streamed song in the us on spotify in a single day

00:01:55.060 with 8.3 million streams and that record was previously held by olivia rodrigo's driver's

00:02:02.060 license which had 8 million streams in one day so 300 000 more and remember how big driver's

00:02:08.020 license was like it was like oh yeah breaking all the records like it was like insane so yeah

00:02:13.700 not a surprise though yeah I'm so happy though because that is a massive record to beat I think

00:02:19.500 I can claim at least two dozen of those streams it was literally just on repeat at work which was

00:02:27.260 like you know like the starting beat was like it was just that all day and because it's a short

00:02:33.460 song as well like you get a lot of you get a lot of places I was like why is it so short I wish it

00:02:39.360 like double the time but I've been like trying to ration myself with it I've been only listening

00:02:44.000 letting myself listen to it max two to three times a day trying to really not listen to it over and

00:02:49.080 over and over because I tend to do that with songs like I get obsessed and then and then I hate them

00:02:53.960 and like don't listen to them again um for like months but yeah though it is hard to ration it

00:03:00.480 when like every second TikTok features a song so it's very interesting to see like because when his

00:03:06.360 last album came out tiktok was around of course but it just wasn't as big as it is now and i wasn't

00:03:12.080 on it as much as i am now so i had a i was thinking like oh i hope this song doesn't get overplayed on

00:03:17.300 the radio like watermelon sugar but then i realized like no it's going to get overplayed on tiktok

00:03:21.660 like and it's not an attack on like the people making the videos like it makes sense it's a

00:03:26.020 trending song but i'm like starting to like skip past as soon as i hear like the notes of the song

00:03:30.860 on a video i'm like oh no no no no um so hopefully that kind of fades away soon and i don't we don't

00:03:36.080 get sick of it our brains are so messed up because i remember on one of the first few listens i was

00:03:42.400 like this will be a nice thing and like and obviously when something's trending like pops

00:03:47.580 off more but i'm like it's eroded our brains in the way of thinking at least for me yeah um but

00:03:54.020 i saw like a guardian article that had compared it to blinding lights by the weekends like the same

00:03:59.080 um god i don't know the words but like the speed or whatever like that kind of catchiness of like

00:04:05.520 the pop tune so yeah it's so bloody good the funniest thing i have to say so i put on my

00:04:15.120 story like we posted photos of harry like as soon as he came out and i shared it to my story with

00:04:19.740 like the words thank you mr styles for destroying my life today right and then not tom's mom calling

00:04:28.300 tom like later that night just you know just for a chat but also going up to him like concerned on

00:04:34.160 the phone being like hey like who was the man that ruined maggie's day with genuine concern

00:04:41.280 that's so sweet wait how does she even not know harry styles that's what's so fascinating i know

00:04:47.960 i know like that's so funny who is this man what is she what has he done to maggie and you're like

00:04:55.260 he's ruined my life for the last 10 years yep um i'm like this man has destroyed me time and time

00:05:01.660 again thank you very much for asking um so yeah that was fun I made mum listen to it I made everyone

00:05:08.240 get around it um so yes a nice light like a nice a nice break from you know the massive big pop

00:05:16.100 culture story that dominated the news this week of course after the Oscars so it was nice to have

00:05:21.200 that that little break yes of course the biggest pop culture story of maybe the year we'll see but

00:05:28.140 before we get into that, I wanted to ask your opinion on something we saw on Architectural

00:05:33.480 Digest this week. It came out that Millennial Queen, Ashley Tisdale, aka Sharpe Evans from

00:05:40.200 High School Musical, bought 400 books before her AD tour. She said, I had my husband go to a

00:05:47.780 bookstore and I was like, you need to get 400 books. Obviously, my husband was like, we should

00:05:52.620 be collecting books over time and putting them in the shelves. And I was like, no, no, no, no,

00:05:56.500 know not when ad comes i love this new story i am so sorry it is such a fun and funny and um

00:06:05.220 one that only a celebrity can tell you know like your friend's not doing this um so it was quite

00:06:11.760 nice when celebrities kind of own up to being like a celebrity and like just being rich you

00:06:17.780 know what did you first think i was like that i thought it was funny and then i was like god she

00:06:23.980 spent I think I saw a tweet that was like Ashley Tisdale spending like 12 grand on um books is like

00:06:30.620 the chaotic celebrity behavior we need or something like that and I was like oh my gosh she's just

00:06:34.780 like spent 12 grand or whatever it is towards hopefully a local bookstore um hopefully not

00:06:40.760 Amazon I'm assuming it's a local bookstore and then also to the authors so I saw some comments

00:06:47.620 on tweets and on Instagram of people being like oh this is disgusting like this is a gross display

00:06:52.420 of wealth she should have donated that money to shelters and which I think is such like a weird

00:06:57.840 argument people always make it when rich people are spending their money how they want they're

00:07:02.620 like oh this could go to a shelter or whatever and it's like people can also spend like of course

00:07:08.300 you should be charitable but people can spend the money the way that they want to um and she's like

00:07:13.120 done something for authors and the book industry which has been struggling oh it's actually gotten

00:07:20.660 a bit better since the pandemic but um you know since the internet basically it has been in

00:07:27.260 decline so I think it's funny and great good for her yeah and it's not something that's so

00:07:33.140 disposable as well like these are books she's supporting the arts industry like this didn't

00:07:37.940 even this consumerism didn't even cross my mind I'm just like well it's kind of just funny but

00:07:43.160 also yeah I mean right now they're still I mean for the video they're in her house but I'm sure

00:07:48.820 she's not going to just chuck them all out either um and a lot of the comments on the youtube video

00:07:54.260 were like you know a lot of celebrities do this before like a big um ad tour or something of the

00:07:59.520 like but they just don't admit it um i don't know if you i like watch these so often but sometimes

00:08:05.880 the celeb being um interviewed or you know giving the tour will admit like oh yeah like i don't know

00:08:11.860 what this plant is my home stylist just chucked it there you know like they they give a sneak peek

00:08:17.300 into the facade of these tours I guess but it was nice for Ashley just to like yeah I think that

00:08:23.460 makes her more relatable than her being like yes I'm really interested in like you know whatever

00:08:30.000 all these like obscure topics and hopefully her husband bought books that he thinks they'll both

00:08:34.640 read over the years I wish I could just go to a bookstore and buy 400 books like

00:08:39.240 who wouldn't so yeah we love that Sharp Eye Evans forever

00:08:47.300 in the news that shocked the world at this year's oscars actor and singer will smith

00:08:55.720 went on stage as comedian chris rock was about to announce the winner of best documentary

00:09:01.460 most of you probably know the situation but just in case chris rock made a dig at will smith's wife

00:09:08.660 jada pinkett smith by suggesting her for a gi jane sequel the movie where demi moore shaved her head

00:09:15.200 Of course, we know Jada has been open about her struggles with alopecia.

00:09:19.800 So while at first Will was seen to be laughing, Jada eye-rolled hard and then Will went on

00:09:25.920 stage to slap Chris.

00:09:27.660 So here in Australia and in Japan, we got the uncensored footage live as the US cut

00:09:33.880 the broadcast. 1.00

00:09:34.820 So we heard the famous Will Smith line, get my wife's name out of your fucking mouth. 1.00

00:09:41.700 Of course, this was like a chaotic moment. 1.00

00:09:44.200 I wasn't watching it live. So obviously Maggie and I work in the media and I'm in the pedestrian TV

00:09:49.560 Slack. So I could see all the journalists at pedestrian being like, wait, was that real?

00:09:56.060 And like sending tweets and stuff and being like, I don't think that was a bit like, I don't think

00:10:00.240 it was set like scripted. I think that really happened freaking out. And then I was on Twitter

00:10:05.200 and just seeing all the takes coming in. It was like a very like surreal moment, right?

00:10:11.980 where were you when the slap happened and this news story has dominated the whole week I swear

00:10:19.280 to god I cannot turn any corner like on the internet or you know in news publications without

00:10:25.720 seeing the flow and effects of this which has been really interesting to witness because I do think

00:10:30.480 there has been so many different degrees of reactions like you said first it was like okay

00:10:36.600 was this scripted is this real like who's in the right who's in the wrong okay which celebrities

00:10:41.560 we want to hear from and what's the academy going to do it's just it goes on and on hey yeah so we

00:10:48.420 don't really want to get into like the takes too much because we think everything has been said and

00:10:53.900 everyone has very different opinions on this but one I really liked was like how can you see two

00:11:00.200 rich men like arguing on stage and not find it like a bit funny like two wealthy like worth

00:11:08.820 hundreds of millions of dollars each and not do anything then like huh like and then kind of mind

00:11:15.980 your own business there have been like some very valid points made about the way we as a society

00:11:22.340 mock women of color and black women um especially when it comes to hair hair is so politicized the

00:11:28.320 ironic thing as well is that chris rock was part of a documentary about black women's hair and then

00:11:35.340 he made the joke that's that's a kind of baffling thing to me and I think this has been a really

00:11:41.520 divisive story like I have actually never seen something um divide so many people and for me

00:11:49.460 personally it's something that I keep flip-flopping like I don't have a strong stance I don't know

00:11:54.280 about you um but I don't know like it's yeah that's what I mean by like the how can you see

00:12:01.120 that and have like a definite stance on it because I think it's so multifaceted there's so many like

00:12:08.660 layers to it as well like is violence acceptable well if violence is acceptable on Oscars like

00:12:14.340 it's a historically white institution you know there's all those things that listeners have

00:12:20.240 probably heard so you don't need to really get into again but the latest news is that Will Smith

00:12:25.180 has resigned from the Motion Picture Academy that is the latest from the weekend Will said

00:12:30.060 I will fully accept any and all consequences for my conduct. My actions at the 94th Academy

00:12:35.500 Awards presentation were shocking, painful, and inexcusable. The list of those I have heard is

00:12:40.720 long and includes Chris, his family, many of my dear friends and loved ones, all those in

00:12:45.660 attendance, and global audiences at home. He continues, I betray the trust of the Academy.

00:12:51.600 I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for

00:12:57.040 their extraordinary work i am heartbroken so this resignation came two days after the academy of

00:13:03.580 motion picture arts and science met to initiate disciplinary proceedings against well for

00:13:10.720 violations of its standards of conduct they famously put out that tweet quite quickly after

00:13:16.420 the incident being like we at the academy do not condone violence and then a lot of twitter users

00:13:21.880 were quick to reply with you know the list of alleged abusers and sexual um people with sexual

00:13:28.280 harassment um allegations against them so that was that was interesting so it's very rich i would

00:13:34.500 say for the oscars to put out that tweet and for the industry at large to make this big deal about

00:13:39.900 this situation obviously violence is never good but these institutions are historically violent

00:13:49.740 in so many ways and we've had known abusers like Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Casey Affleck

00:13:59.380 all winning awards and these white men winning awards after being investigated by the police or

00:14:05.940 having these kind of scandals that could really put a mark on the academy but they're still given

00:14:11.840 these awards from these institutions. So the actor Jim Carrey has been giving his two cents

00:14:16.720 this week on talk shows, but during the 1997 MTV Movie Awards, as Alicia Silverstone from

00:14:22.660 Clueless was presenting the award, Jim won and went on stage and kissed Alicia, like passionately

00:14:30.560 kissed her. So it's quite rich for him to say, this is violent. You should never use violence.

00:14:37.580 Like sexual assault is also a form of violence. So yeah, a lot of these like white men, especially 0.95

00:14:45.040 kind of chiming in when it's like bestie you're part of the problem as well in like a bigger 0.51

00:14:53.700 like when you zoom out basically so i'm actually quite surprised that will has resigned i hope he

00:15:00.160 can keep his oscar but it's a very tricky topic right it is with the resignation side of things

00:15:06.480 it feels um quite performative in the way it like doesn't do much he is the first um ever person to

00:15:12.600 voluntarily resigned from like the academy and kind of what you get from it is like oh you get

00:15:19.480 to like have an advanced screening of some of the movies oh you get to be a critic right kind of

00:15:27.220 like not exactly they can nominate oscars candidates in their like specialty branch

00:15:32.540 and vote for the winners so that's pretty cool but that's like yeah that's it which is you know

00:15:37.740 doesn't affect his career it's more about like the status of it yeah but had will been expelled

00:15:44.140 from the academy he rather than resigning he would have joined a very small group of men who have

00:15:49.480 already been removed so of course harvey weinstein roman polanski bill cosby and the actor carmen

00:15:56.380 caridi who was kicked out for sharing advanced copies of films so yeah it's quite uh rare to be

00:16:03.460 expelled but he has resigned himself and chris rock has also declined to file charges when asked

00:16:09.500 by police but chris is about to go on a world tour and apparently his ticket sales have been like

00:16:14.540 selling out wow i think what's kind of brought this kind of entertainment side to this especially

00:16:20.980 uh just all the celebrity hot takes we'll get into another one very soon but oh my god i have

00:16:27.800 to give a special mention to that chaotic Liam Payne interview on the red carpet that went for

00:16:33.500 like three minutes um where everyone was like oh what is his accent he kind of goes from Irish to

00:16:39.620 English so weird and he's like you know love wins like let's take the best like what can we learn

00:16:45.080 from this this was beautiful like we got to see one of the most emotive artists being emotive

00:16:50.580 and it was just so next level he didn't know being Chris Rock he didn't want to do what he had to do

00:16:56.760 being Will Smith and she did nothing being Jada and it's a very sad thing but there was a powerful

00:17:04.100 moment for me to sit and watch one of the world's best emotes in the ever we've seen speak from the

00:17:10.540 heart and I would rather take the beauty out of the situation than take the pain but I had to

00:17:15.180 leave my chair I'll be honest with you it it cut me really deep and I don't I don't get deep about

00:17:20.580 these things but I'm a big I'm a big movie fan I'll be honest with you and out of a horrible

00:17:25.880 moment there was a little bit of beauty in what came on and I'm sure everyone's very apologetic

00:17:29.900 about what happened shouldn't happen um yeah I think that accent is down to a little thing

00:17:37.500 called cocaine oh god I hope he's okay because as we know like Liam has battled with addiction

00:17:42.080 issues so I'm kind of like yeah is it is it nasty to like be laughing at someone like who's high

00:17:50.700 well he might not be high he might just like have a funny accent but I don't want to assume anything

00:17:55.020 but knowing his history of addiction I'm like oh I hope that it's not like I hope he's okay

00:18:02.200 basically okay okay well disclaimer so sorry I am very bad I have no drug radar so if that's the

00:18:09.140 case definitely um definitely second that sorry Liam Payne if you're listening to this

00:18:13.720 I don't want to close it out I know we've both just given our opinions but one of my favorite

00:18:19.620 responses to this whole thing was from the unproblematic king daniel radcliffe aka harry

00:18:25.400 potter he was asked for his take on this during an appearance on the uk tv show good morning

00:18:30.920 britain he was chatting about his new film the lost city and then he says i'm just so already

00:18:36.740 dramatically bored of hearing people's opinions about that i just don't want to be another opinion

00:18:41.740 adding to it i love that phrase dramatically bored and you can hear it in his accent as well

00:18:47.400 hey dramatically bored okay terrible but you know yeah it did I think um this Oscars thing

00:18:55.560 really expired after like a day or two it's interesting isn't it like we're speeding up

00:19:00.680 even scandals I think we need to just because of like the saturation of content that was produced

00:19:05.960 about it like that's what was just so fatiguing but anyway anyway on to the next on to the next

00:19:14.580 story which is connected to this oscar scandal we might say fan culture just revealed how fickle

00:19:22.760 it can be because this week the internet turned on none other than zoe kravitz the ultimate cool

00:19:30.180 it girl child of lenny kravitz and lisa benet had her digital footprint dug up after she decided to

00:19:35.920 comment on the will smith and chris rock situation so on instagram actually let's talk about her

00:19:41.060 dress so she wore this pink dress like baby pink dress with a bow on it gorgeous I didn't like it

00:19:47.320 oh I loved it well I love anything in that color yeah I have so many unpopular opinions about the

00:19:53.440 red carpet I did not enjoy what Zendaya wore sorry and she was voted like the best dress

00:19:59.480 across the board basically shrug my memory I remember the suit at the after party what was 0.99

00:20:03.740 her on the red carpet oh yeah that was incredible her red carpet look was this like cropped white 1.00

00:20:08.580 silky shirt and then she had this sparkly silver long oh yeah a skirt sorry um why didn't you like 0.99

00:20:16.220 it it felt very tacky oh i'm so sorry you know she was wearing like ten thousand dollar bracelet

00:20:23.500 like multiple ten thousand dollar bracelets on arm not a surprise that is equivalent of 400 books 0.97

00:20:29.660 we've now learned um but i think her suit at the after party looked incredible like obviously she's

00:20:37.520 one of the most beautiful people on the planet like it's not hard to make it look good i think

00:20:41.460 but anyway i just personally wasn't the biggest fan um back to zoe though so sorry um so yeah she

00:20:48.220 had posted a photo of herself in that pink dress with the caption here's a picture of my dress at

00:20:55.440 the award show where we are apparently assaulting people on stage now and um so now the comments

00:21:01.840 are turned off from that post but according to Elle a fan asked in the comments whether her

00:21:07.520 caption meant she didn't support Smith for defending his wife and she replied nope. So after

00:21:14.080 this several Twitter users then circulated an interview so I did in 2013 where she made some

00:21:19.160 uncomfortably sexualized remarks about 14 year old Jaden Smith aka Will Smith's son. She made

00:21:26.200 these comments when she was 24. She said there were moments that I was hanging out with Jaden

00:21:31.020 and thinking i can't believe you're 14 i have to check myself like what i say to you he has so much

00:21:37.020 personality and so much swag he's so much cooler than i am and he's so handsome i was always like

00:21:42.540 when you're older you know we'll hang out nope that's inappropriate you're 14 i feel like that's

00:21:48.860 just not something you should like i think people think it but like do you say it in an interview

00:21:53.020 like i don't know it's so interesting that she offered this up yeah um and yeah and when you're

00:22:00.460 24 as well like you know she didn't say this when she was a teenager or whatever like you you're an

00:22:05.360 adult there like you can kind of assess the situation she was born into a famous family

00:22:09.700 she knows how these things work i just felt so uncomfortable reading this because i was like

00:22:13.820 oh my goodness like we're talking about a 14 year old boy like it just feels icky right um but this

00:22:20.880 really did go really far like the internet ran with this you know terms like zoe kravitz predator

00:22:26.980 and Zoe Kravitz's receipts started trending on Twitter.

00:22:31.800 I saw some like a take on Twitter being like Zoe saying these comments

00:22:36.260 and saying this shows that like she's really not a predator 0.96

00:22:40.280 because she's like drawing the lines and the boundaries.

00:22:44.360 Well, that's what I meant before.

00:22:45.240 Like, oh, you might think that those things.

00:22:47.320 I'm not saying that I think about 14-year-old boys,

00:22:49.440 but like you can like look at a teenager and be like,

00:22:54.340 oh, you're going to be handsome when you're older.

00:22:55.840 but I think um it's another thing to like say in the interview and be like oh call me when you're

00:23:01.920 um call me when you're older like that's a different line right I think it would have

00:23:05.680 just been like an offhand comment that she didn't think that deeply about but the way

00:23:10.400 the internet's turned on her like overnight was crazy to me like honestly we we were only just

00:23:18.720 raving about her and like the Batman a week ago it was interesting just to add more I guess fuel

00:23:24.420 to the fire people were also calling her out over her friendship with alexander wang so he's has

00:23:31.160 sexual harassment allegations against him yes so she's definitely not the only celebrity to make

00:23:37.800 their opinion known on the slap situation uh ones that come to mind are amy schumer jamila jamil 0.99

00:23:43.500 uh so many people but it's interesting to see just how vicious the commentary was towards her 1.00

00:23:49.640 do you think that this is because of her race like i feel like black women especially have to 1.00

00:23:58.900 be like they have to be perfect right for society and if you're not the perfect black woman biracial

00:24:06.260 woman woman of color you can so easily be taken down a peg right yeah so as we've just discussed 0.98

00:24:13.460 there have been so many silly people weighing in on this oscar situation judd apatow like so many 0.94

00:24:21.700 and no one's copying this much heat as zoe i personally think no one's really gone back except 0.77

00:24:28.880 maybe the jim carrey one because he's really putting himself out there as a spokesperson for

00:24:33.960 this event like no one's really digging this much up about her i even saw another tweet that was

00:24:41.560 criticizing her appearance like showing old photos of her and saying like this is what money gets you

00:24:47.040 yeah ensuring that you know she's um she's had work done which is fine but people are really

00:24:52.880 coming at her at all angles yeah I saw a tiktok about that it was like this is what money gets

00:24:59.720 you and it showed her like her as a teenager and her now it's like your face changes from when

00:25:04.660 you're 13 years old to like when you're 30 like obviously you lose your you know your baby fat

00:25:10.240 and whatever your face just changes it doesn't even matter if she's had work done but yeah i was

00:25:14.360 like this is really nasty yeah it really is and like obviously neither of us are brown or black

00:25:21.520 and i understand that these comments i'll i'm about to share like a humorous but a lot of the 0.94

00:25:27.440 commentary was really interesting again on twitter um comparing her to other bipoc women so for

00:25:35.560 instance one read i'm glad zoe kravitz said that now we can just focus on zendaya or another one

00:25:41.860 said now that everyone hates zoe kravitz let me introduce simone ashley the prettiest girl in

00:25:47.920 bridgerton those you say like oh they're made as jokes but i don't think they're humorous at all

00:25:53.400 like they're basically saying there can only be one black or brown woman of the month but like

00:25:58.500 if you make a step wrong we're going to push you off the pedestal and we're going to let one other

00:26:05.160 brown girl be a black woman be um the it girl of the month the year whatever so like like oh 1.00

00:26:11.920 zoe kravitz you're done so like let's put simone ashley at the top of the black woman pyramid like 0.99

00:26:16.580 it's so fucked yeah and i think um let me just say this again yeah and a lot of the commentary 0.98

00:26:27.220 around zoe and zendaya together was uncomfortable and this is what i mean like okay so like 0.99

00:26:33.340 obviously like yes I'm Chinese I can't weigh in on brown and black politics because a lot of 0.94

00:26:38.820 a lot of them were being like oh boohoo like fair-skinned black girls like have a cry kind

00:26:45.640 of they were just minimizing the experience because they are light-skinned and obviously

00:26:49.700 colorism which is when you know people in the same ethnic community with varying skin tones

00:26:55.540 it's like internal like this internalized racism there like that's obviously rampant and we can

00:27:00.600 acknowledge that yes that people with fairer skin have access to different privileges than people

00:27:05.580 with darker skins but it's still you know these are still people of color these are still women

00:27:09.740 of color that we're talking about yeah i don't think this is going to spell the end of zoe's 0.97

00:27:13.920 career at all and i wonder if celebrities are becoming more immune to these types of like

00:27:18.660 twitter attacks like it feels like we're taught we've been speaking about like at least one a

00:27:22.720 week for the last few weeks people are just like oh whatever now yes um she did post something kind

00:27:29.900 of like millennial kind of chuggy on her story after this um she like reposted this tweet that

00:27:35.080 was like um sorry just gonna paraphrase but it's like don't believe everything you see on the

00:27:40.920 internet like it's silly and then the person who originally did that tweet had like an emoji of a

00:27:47.260 car and the duck and then they're like see the duck is bigger than the car and Zoe put that on

00:27:52.600 story. This next story isn't so much about pop culture, but it encompasses the social media apps

00:28:03.540 that we speak about almost every week. So this week, US tech reporter and journalist, Taylor

00:28:09.200 Lorenz, who is so talented, you have to follow her work if you don't already. Taylor broke a huge

00:28:15.020 story. And that is that Facebook reportedly paid one of the largest Republican consulting firms

00:28:20.340 in the US to orchestrate a nationwide campaign to turn the public against TikTok.

00:28:26.180 The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editors in major regional news outlets,

00:28:32.280 promoting fake stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook,

00:28:37.000 and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down TikTok.

00:28:43.160 It sounds like a movie or something.

00:28:45.200 Yeah, what?

00:28:46.280 But these are the tactics that we've seen in the world of politics before.

00:28:50.220 For example, the famous Cambridge Analytica scandal, where personal data belonging to

00:28:54.600 millions of Facebook users was collected without their consent by this British consulting

00:28:59.260 firm, Cambridge Analytica.

00:29:01.060 The data provided analytical assistance to the 2016 presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz

00:29:08.140 and Donald Trump, and even famously helped to swing Brexit voters.

00:29:12.340 So kind of using human nature and social media against its users

00:29:19.460 and its customers to get the political outcomes that they want.

00:29:22.960 So it's not new for the companies to do this.

00:29:25.460 However, it is interesting to see a desperate Mark Zuckerberg

00:29:29.200 trying to win back the young users through this like corrupt way. 0.76

00:29:35.480 It's so dirty.

00:29:36.380 Like it feels very dirty politics. 0.96

00:29:39.500 like it it's next level things what they are doing and it feels kind of ridiculous just to

00:29:44.160 I mean maybe this is us being naive or me being naive but it's like oh to win back market share

00:29:49.060 or like to gain users like calm down like it's just it's just a business I'm so sorry I know

00:29:55.220 it's obviously a lot more but it just feels ridiculous yeah but it's not just a business

00:30:01.020 is it like it's a massive conglomerate that like like we said like controls the outcomes of

00:30:08.700 elections and can really make like influence our psychology it already has and um yeah influence

00:30:16.980 and make change in the world whether that's for the good or bad yeah but the motive that facebook

00:30:23.400 would have is just profit like that's the only reason that we can see this happening and then

00:30:28.660 to go to these lengths just to secure the bag is embarrassing according to internal email shared

00:30:37.540 with the Washington Post, the consulting firm Targeted Victory tried to undermine TikTok through

00:30:43.060 this smear campaign, basically by portraying the Beijing-based company ByteDance, aka the owners

00:30:49.740 of TikTok, as a danger to American children and society. In an email in February, the firm wrote

00:30:57.540 that Targeted Victory needs to, quote, get the message out there that while Meta is the current

00:31:02.880 punching bag, TikTok is the real threat, especially as a foreign-owned app that is number one in

00:31:08.420 sharing data that young teens are using. And they also were encouraged to use TikTok's 0.99

00:31:15.280 prominence as a way to deflect from Meta's own privacy and antitrust concerns. So we know that

00:31:21.820 Facebook is trying to rebrand as Meta and they've had a lot of issues lately, especially when it

00:31:29.820 comes to people just like not trusting Facebook anymore so at least they're self-aware

00:31:36.300 well like that's the thing when you're reading out uh these things that they're doing I'm like

00:31:42.520 okay no we've seen this play out in our own worlds this kind of fear-mongering of TikTok and

00:31:48.220 oh China's got your data and obviously I don't know the intricacies of global politics but like

00:31:54.860 as someone who's Chinese some of like the rhetoric that I'm hearing from peers from strangers being 0.90

00:31:59.700 like like tiktok is so dangerous who you don't even know what they're doing with your data like

00:32:03.860 and i'm here on all the social media apps i'm like it feels obviously i'm i'm not like i don't i'm

00:32:11.120 not educated in this specifically but it felt really wrong like this intense targeting of tiktok

00:32:19.360 when we know for facts that facebook has done so much dirty stuff with our data like that's that's

00:32:25.300 out there in the open now yeah for like 15 years now or something crazy um speaking of do you

00:32:31.820 remember the facebook whistleblower from last year i feel like it really got like kind of swept over

00:32:38.220 tell me about it yeah so um it feels like it came and went quite quickly but frances horgan was a

00:32:45.040 former employee of facebook and she leaked an internal report which stated that teens were

00:32:49.360 spending two to three times more time on TikTok than Instagram and that Facebook's popularity

00:32:55.460 among young people had plummeted. But I feel like this isn't a shock. Like you didn't need

00:32:59.820 to leak an internal report. Well, obviously a lot more was said in that and you can find out for

00:33:05.720 yourself exactly what she was saying about Facebook. But when it comes to TikTok, like

00:33:10.180 that's not a shock. Do you even use Facebook these days? Embarrassingly, yeah. I do scroll

00:33:16.620 through sometimes but definitely don't like engage with anything right so i'm in a few facebook

00:33:21.420 groups which is kind of nice to look at things but i'm not there commenting i'm not there liking

00:33:26.520 or anything anymore what about you i check facebook like the actual like i use messenger

00:33:33.700 all day every day but like the actual app itself i deleted off my phone during one of the first

00:33:39.240 lockdown so now i just use it on my laptop so i maybe check it like once a day maybe once every

00:33:45.420 couple days um and it's really just to like see notifications definitely tiktok is my favorite app

00:33:52.120 at the moment ah and it's interesting because you just mentioned that whistleblower which jogged my

00:33:56.680 memory so i think that series was called the facebook files is on um wall street journal

00:34:01.200 and they found things like we know that instagram makes body image issues worse for teenagers like

00:34:06.820 they knew all this terrible stuff that they're doing for mental health and then they turn their

00:34:11.980 attention to this kind of sabotaging of TikTok and the targeted victory group actually like backed

00:34:19.960 up what they were doing like they were like proud of what they were doing so back to Taylor Loren's

00:34:25.080 stories they declined to respond to questions about the campaign saying only that it has

00:34:30.720 represented Meta for several years and is quote proud of the work we have done. They also said

00:34:36.200 we believe all platforms including TikTok should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their

00:34:41.020 growing success but a tiktok spoke person said the company is deeply concerned as he would be

00:34:46.620 about the quote stoking of local media reports on alleged trends that have not been found on

00:34:52.020 the platform one really funny part of the story was this leak so the targeted victory firm says

00:34:59.100 the dream would be to get stories with headlines like from dances to danger how tiktok has become

00:35:05.020 the most harmful social media space for kids but not gonna lie i would see that on like kid spot

00:35:10.920 or even Mamma Mia like that would exist you know there was so much of that like fear mongering and

00:35:17.140 especially for parents who aren't on these apps like it feels scary I think mom brought it up

00:35:21.280 with me the other day she's like oh is it like is it okay like blah blah blah yeah so like those

00:35:26.280 headlines I can see them out in the wire but it's very funny that they probably had that in like an

00:35:30.760 important document somewhere yeah one thing that you should follow Taylor Lorenz on TikTok as well

00:35:37.580 post her account but um she's kind of talking about the story and how the this firm was like

00:35:44.620 making up fake stories and trends there was one called like slap a teacher or something yes they

00:35:50.520 were saying like oh this is a terrible trend but like taylor says in her tiktoks like i'm on tiktok

00:35:56.620 all the time and i was not seeing these trends at all so it's quite easy like if you're a tiktok

00:36:02.380 user to be like nah this is fake oh yes and reply all also did like an episode kind of about that

00:36:09.720 slapper teacher thing it's called absolutely devious lick um that was uh posted in october

00:36:15.520 last year such a good listen i do love a deep dive into tiktok trends that is like my sunday

00:36:22.300 morning reading so yeah i just wanted to talk about this story because it is fascinating to see

00:36:27.480 like Facebook, who owns Instagram and Snapchat, like they've had so much monopoly on social media

00:36:33.340 for the last decade plus. And now people are using TikTok instead of Google and people are

00:36:41.300 using TikTok for so much, like for so much of their life now. It's funny to see them freak out

00:36:47.120 basically and be like, we need to get the kids back on side. But it's like, honey, you're not

00:36:52.020 doing what TikTok's doing. Is there something you've watched, read or listened to this week,

00:37:02.380 that you'd like to recommend? Yes. So this week I was scrolling on Instagram, speaking of,

00:37:09.100 and I follow a journalist called Abir Dib, a great journalist who's written for publications,

00:37:13.820 including The Age, Refinery29, SBS Voices. And this week she posted about her latest opinion

00:37:19.960 piece for the age titled pandemic and social media making 20 somethings feel old it caught

00:37:26.520 my attention as it's something that i've been trying to kind of push away recently on the

00:37:31.260 cusp of turning 26 um i feel like i really noticed that my friends are suddenly on different paths

00:37:39.800 and like lots of my friends are like getting engaged buying houses like um buying puppy dogs

00:37:46.680 Lizzie um which is all such exciting life stuff but I'm it's made me realize like oh god like

00:37:52.720 we're not we're not like teenagers anymore which is so funny to think only being in my mid-20s but

00:37:57.880 I'm also like I'm also still young it's like the battle of like knowing I'm still young knowing

00:38:02.940 I've still got heaps of time to do the things I want to do but society and TikTok has made it

00:38:09.020 feel like once you get to 30 like your life is over so I think Abiyah really put these feelings

00:38:14.780 into a very eloquent piece that has been on my mind and I'd love to have her read some of our

00:38:19.780 in her own words. I always thought the sweet spot between awkward youth and bitter adulthood

00:38:25.980 was your 30s. At least that's what I gathered from 13 going on 30, where Jennifer Garner was 0.99

00:38:32.260 in the prime of womanhood. 30, flirty and thriving. I couldn't wait. Unfortunately for me, my early 1.00

00:38:40.520 20s was spent online for hours and taking bleak walks. I spent two young years in the pandemic

00:38:46.940 and I felt decrepit when I emerged. Then came the flood of announcements on my social media feeds.

00:38:55.040 He finally popped the question. One caption reads, baby number two on the way, another exclaims,

00:39:01.860 and on LinkedIn, I landed a new, very important sounding job from a person who's a little too

00:39:09.120 young for comfort. How are people finding the time to have accomplishments when I was just trying to

00:39:15.300 find the will to get through the day? The obsession with having it all figured out before you're 30

00:39:20.800 is exhausting, like a quickening rat race where accomplishments don't taste as sweet

00:39:26.360 if you're not a child prodigy. In an era where success, optics and youth is currency,

00:39:33.040 there's no room to be young, dumb and unaesthetic. When pondering whether this feeling was merely 0.96

00:39:39.040 a premature quarter-life crisis social media related or caused by the pandemic I realize it's

00:39:46.100 a grotesque combination of all three. The feeling mirrored with many friends who also express a

00:39:53.100 sense of depleting time because women in their 20s are expected to be young, taut-faced, beautiful,

00:39:59.980 fit, coupled up and well-traveled all before we snowball into inevitable obscurity. That's just a

00:40:07.560 tiny snippet i urge you to read all it will obviously be linked in the show notes thank

00:40:13.060 you for writing it abir that is so sweet and i have to say jazz there is something super sexy

00:40:19.140 about 26 i think that is really yeah no 100 i don't know why like when i learned something's

00:40:24.060 26 i'm like yeah boss like like that is something like that is yeah that's a good time like i don't

00:40:29.840 know 26 is a good one and then satin returns in your 20s like 27 28 29 20 30 yeah

00:40:37.160 somewhere around there which can be good I read a lot of the comments on there as well

00:40:42.700 on the ages page well and there's people in the 50 60 and you did get like the odd like oh shut

00:40:48.860 up like you're young and you're like but then there were other comments that were quite comforting

00:40:53.180 like oh I can't imagine how hard it would have been like we had it so easy in the 60s and 70s

00:40:59.500 in our youth like social media is ruining a lot but like you do have time I'm you know 50 and my

00:41:07.920 best years were my 40s or like comments like that where I was like oh like it is such like a social

00:41:14.360 media thing but also people saying like I felt the same way in my 20s like it's not that new of

00:41:21.180 a feeling every generation feels like they've had it harder or yeah like the period before was better

00:41:28.640 so i'm also like it's a privilege to get old shut up brain but you know that is our western

00:41:34.300 society of like glorifying youth right and mags what have you been watching reading listening to 0.79

00:41:41.540 this week yes okay so i'm on a movie roll um and i have a bit of an annoying recommendation

00:41:48.880 because it's mostly left cinemas now but it's very current in pop culture i am recommending

00:41:55.280 King Richard. Of course the movie that won Will Smith his Oscar but I watched it at the Moonlight

00:42:02.880 Cinemas here in Melbourne a couple weeks ago and it was such a lovely watch. Of course we know I'm

00:42:09.180 not the biggest sports like fan and it is the story of Venus and Serena Williams come up focusing

00:42:16.380 on their eccentric dad Richard and yeah it was such a lovely watch. I don't know why like literally

00:42:23.680 in the couple weeks since I'll just randomly think of it I'm like yeah damn like that's inspiring

00:42:28.680 it is really powerful and awe-inspiring it made me really proud to live at the same time as Venus

00:42:34.720 and Serena Williams like they are truly two of the best sports people ever and I know that for

00:42:41.660 decades to come they'll be talking about them so it was really special to kind of honor them in this

00:42:46.700 way and of course race and class are like instrumental themes of this film but also not

00:42:53.100 in like a weighted down in heaviness way like Venus and Serena they have such at least in this

00:42:59.320 film you know a beautiful mother beautiful siblings it was such a beautiful family

00:43:03.780 environment to watch as well so yeah that's my recommendation I did actually take a look because

00:43:09.040 I want my parents to watch it um and it's popping up in a few cinemas here and there after the Oscars

00:43:14.020 so get it while you can and I'm sure it'll be on streaming services like any minute so fast these

00:43:22.040 days yeah I really want to watch that as well not just for the kind of oh this is one that won

00:43:28.660 Will Smith Oscar but um also feel kind of bad for Venus and Serena that yes like the um was it the

00:43:37.660 director Jane Campion won an award for this movie and she really made a dig and kind of said she's

00:43:45.700 a white woman and she said to Venus and Serena like you guys compete against the best in the

00:43:50.600 world but you don't compete against the men and that was kind of like a scandal viral moment as 0.98

00:43:56.940 well of like what the fuck like white feminism and then the will smith oscars i'm like god this

00:44:02.960 movie is like really i hope it's not getting overshadowed so it's good that you recommended 0.96

00:44:07.620 it at for the movie itself like we're not talking about it in the way of like the scandals surrounding

00:44:12.200 it i feel like nearly every episode recently we've also gone i'm not a sports well i'm not

00:44:16.480 into sports but like we keep talking about it so maybe we are into sports like you saw your first

00:44:20.720 afl women's game this week i was saying we should go to the men's games together because that's in

00:44:26.800 season now so maybe we are we're in our sporty era sporty era watch us we're both runners now

00:44:33.840 you know so culture club's gonna pivot all righty well that's all we have time for today

00:44:40.200 so thank you for listening as always otherwise we'll see you on the internet

00:44:45.200 bye

00:45:15.200 You

Culture Club - April 05, 2022

Jealous Much, Meta？

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