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Apple said it has pulled two of Chinas biggest gay dating apps, Blued and Finka, under pressure from Chinese authorities, in the latest sign of a tightening grip on the LGBTQ+ community. An Apple spokesperson said in a statement that the company removed the two dating apps from China based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, without further elaborating. We follow the laws in the countries where we operate, the spokesperson told The Associated Press. A check by The Associated Press on Tuesday found that the two apps are not available on Apples app store in China, although an express version of Blued could still be found. It was unclear what the difference is between the full and express versions or if an Android version might be available. Blued was available only in China, Apple said. Finkas developer elected to remove the app outside of China earlier this year, the company added. Another popular gay dating app, Grindr, was pulled from Apples app store in China in 2022. Chinas LGBTQ+ community and advocacy groups are under intensifying pressure from authorities, even though the country decriminalized homosexuality in 1997. Some LGBTQ+ groups have been forced to cease operations in recent years in China and activism has been constrained. Blued and Finka have the same parent company, BlueCity, a China-founded company that focuses on the LGBTQ+ community in China and abroad. BlueCity was delisted from the Nasdaq in 2022, when it was taken private. Last year, Apple also reportedly removed apps including WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China under an order by the Cyberspace Administration of China. Among all foreign tech companies that provide services to Chinese users, Apple is probably the one which is most willing to comply with Chinese internet regulations, said George Chen, partner and co-chair of digital practice at The Asia Group. Apple rarely pushes back on Chinese governments takedown requests as Chinese markets, including sales of iPhones, is too important for them, Chen added. Chan Ho-Him, AP business writer AP writers Kelvin Chan and Kanis Leung contributed to this story.
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The tech industry is moving fast and breaking things againand this time it is humanitys shared reality and control of our likeness before and after deaththanks to artificial intelligence image-generation platforms like OpenAIs Sora 2. The typical Sora video, made on OpenAIs app and spread onto TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook, is designed to be amusing enough for you to click and share. It could be Queen Elizabeth II rapping or something more ordinary and believable. One popular Sora genre is fake doorbell camera footage capturing something slightly uncanny say, a boa constrictor on the porch or an alligator approaching an unfazed childand ends with a mild shock, like a grandma shouting as she beats the animal with a broom. But a growing chorus of advocacy groups, academics, and experts is raising alarms about the dangers of letting people create AI videos on just about anything they can type into a prompt, leading to the proliferation of nonconsensual images and realistic deepfakes in a sea of less harmful AI slop. OpenAI has cracked down on AI creations of public figuresamong them, Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mister Rogersdoing outlandish things, but only after an outcry from family estates and an actors’ union. The nonprofit Public Citizen is now demanding OpenAI withdraw Sora 2 from the public, writing in a Tuesday letter to the company and CEO Sam Altman that the apps hasty release so that it could launch ahead of competitors shows a consistent and dangerous pattern of OpenAI rushing to market with a product that is either inherently unsafe or lacking in needed guardrails. Sora 2, the letter says, shows a reckless disregard for product safety, as well as people’s rights to their own likeness and the stability of democracy. The group also sent the letter to the U.S. Congress. OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Our biggest concern is the potential threat to democracy, said Public Citizen tech policy advocate J.B. Branch in an interview. I think were entering a world in which people cant really trust what they see. And were starting to see strategies in politics where the first image, the first video that gets released, is what people remember. Branch, author of Tuesday’s letter, also sees broader concerns to people’s privacy that disproportionately impact vulnerable populations online. OpenAI blocks nudity but Branch said that women are seeing themselves being harassed online in other ways, such as with fetishized niche content that makes it through the apps’ restrictions. The news outlet 404 Media on Friday reported on a flood of Sora-made videos of women being strangled. OpenAI introduced its new Sora app on iPhones more than a month ago. It launched on Android phones last week in the U.S., Canada and several Asian countries, including Japan and South Korea. Much of the strongest pushback has come from Hollywood and other entertainment interests, including the Japanese manga industry. OpenAI announced its first big changes just days after the release, saying overmoderation is super frustrating for users but that its important to be conservative while the world is still adjusting to this new technology. That was followed by publicly announced agreements with Martin Luther King Jr.’s family on Oct. 16, preventing disrespectful depictions of the civil rights leader while the company worked on better safeguards, and another on Oct. 20 with Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston, the SAG-AFTRA union and talent agencies. Thats all well and good if youre famous, Branch said. Its sort of just a pattern that OpenAI has where theyre willing to respond to the outrage of a very small population. Theyre willing to release something and apologize afterwards. But a lot of these issues are design choices that they can make before releasing.” OpenAI has faced similar complaints about its flagship product, ChatGPT. Seven new lawsuits filed last week in California courts claim the chatbot drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental health issues. Filed on behalf of six adults and one teenager by the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project, the lawsuits claim that OpenAI knowingly released GPT-4o prematurely last year, despite internal warnings that it was dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative. Four of the victims died by suicide. Public Citizen was not involved in the lawsuits, but Branch said he sees parallels in Sora’s hasty release. He said theyre putting the pedal to the floor without regard for harms. Much of this seems foreseeable. But theyd rather get a product out there, get people downloading it, get people who are addicted to it rather than doing the right thing and stress-testing these things beforehand and worrying about the plight of everyday users. OpenAI spent last week responding to complaints from a Japanese trade association representing famed animators like Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli and video game makers like Bandai Namco and Square Enix. OpenAI said many anime fans want to interact with their favorite characters, but the company has also set guardrails in place to prevent well-known characters from being generated without the consent of the people who own the copyrights. Were engaging directly with studios and rightsholders, listening to feedback, and learning from how people are using Sora 2, including in Japan, where cultural and creative industries are deeply valued,” OpenAI said in a statement about the trade group’s letter last week. Barbara Ortutay and Matt O’Brien, AP technology writers
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ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula is being recalled in 12 states due to concerns it may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to investigate a multi-state outbreak of infant botulism. As of November 10, 15 infants who were either fed the formula or exposed to it have developed infant botulism in 12 different states. Those states are: Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington. The investigation remains ongoing. All 15 infants were hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported. Information is available for 14 of those cases, with the illnesses occurring between August 9 and November 10. Those 14 infants range in age from 16 to 157 days old. ByHeart released a public statement on November 11, which said that while the company hasn’t found the “toxins in any unopened can of ByHeart formula,” it “decided to voluntarily recall all ByHeart formula nationwide” including unexpired lots of formula cans and single-serve anywhere sticks. ByHeart infant formula products make up less than 1% of all infant formula sold in the U.S. Infant botulism symptoms According to the FDA, most infants with infant botulism will initially develop constipation, poor feeding, loss of head control, and difficulty swallowing, which can progress to difficulty breathing and respiratory arrest. Symptoms of infant botulism, which is diagnosed clinically, can take as long as several weeks to develop following formula ingestion. FDA recommendations Botulism can be fatal, and the FDA recommends taking action right away. According to the agency, parents and caregivers should stop using any ByHeart infant formula products immediately. If you suspect a child has consumed ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula and is experiencing signs and symptoms, seek immediate medical attention. If a child consumed ByHeart formula and is not currently showing symptoms, continue monitoring them and seek medical attention if symptoms develop. If you still have the formula in your home, the agency recommends you to take a photo or record the information on the bottom of the package, keep the container in a safe spot, and be sure to label that product as “DO NOT USE.” If a child develops symptoms, your state health department might want to collect your formula container for testing. If a child does not develop symptoms after 30 days, throw your containers out.
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