Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
culture podcast bring you the biggest stories from social
media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
host and also the deputy editor of the youth digital media brand
Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Tech Scroll
for 2026. I really hope everyone had a
relaxing fun break. If you took a break, my holiday
day period was honestly quite a flop.
I had a quite a tumultuous and if not cast and to 2025 and
beginning of 2026. So I'm really hoping we can only
go up from here. And also my apologies if I sound
a little bit sick as well. I did spend a part of the
holiday break a little bit under the weather and I definitely
have a cough lingering so hopefully that doesn't impact
how I sound. But yes, that is enough about me
and my cast break. If you enjoyed this episode,
Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe.
And let's just get into the stories for this week.
The first story we absolutely need to talk about is all this
discussion around Open AI and Pinterest.
If you run in tech circles or kind of get served up tech based
content on your social media algorithms, you may have seen
this. But basically everyone is
convinced that Open AI is set to purchase Pinterest.
So I did some digging to see where this all came from.
And I believe the rumor slash claim goes back to an article
published by The Information, which included an array of tech
predictions for the coming year. And it was published on January
too, so very recently. In the piece, reporter Anne
Gehen predicted that Quote Open AI will make its biggest
acquisition yet when it buys Pinterest.
So from her perspective, it makes sense for both Open AI and
Pinterest. Where she wrote Quote Open AI
would be most interested in the bones of Pinterest business,
like it's trove of image data and its existing advertising
business, as well as its relationship with merchants.
Pinterest digital scrapbooking features could also complement
Open a is image and video generation tools.
So essentially, the data on the platform would be a powerful way
for Open AI to train its model, which would ultimately help it
compete with other AI models, which we know is a constant
concern for these AI companies. The reporter also adds that it
is quite timely from a financial point of view, noting that it
makes sense for Open AI to cash in on Pinterest now.
I haven't seen anyone really talk about it from this angle
though. But if Chachi PT or Open AI was
to acquire Pinterest, I do think it could work to maybe lessen
the AI gender gap. There has been a lot of talk
online recently referencing various studies and research
that show that women tend to use AI at lower rates than men,
specifically in the workplace, but also across the board.
And with Pinterest user base being 70% women, the potential
to integrate open AI into this kind of platform could be
valuable for big tech because obviously they are always
looking at user data and uptake. Now I do want to say the The
Information is definitely a reliable and legitimate source.
For example, they were I think the first outlet to report on
the planned launch of the US run version of the TikTok app.
Obviously this has yet to eventuate, but as far as we know
it does seem to be coming. So there is definitely weight to
what is published by The Information where they are
definitely Privy to conversation slash sources that other
publications may not be. But there does seem to be a
missing piece of information from many of the TikTok
journalists and posts covering this story.
Most of what I've seen failed to mention that this information
came from a piece predicting 2026 and tech.
It's not necessarily a scoop per SE, where they are definitely
treating it as a solid deal. This is not to say that this
won't happen, but it's important to consume this information with
that piece of context. I will say though, that many
social media users have had quite a strong response to these
rumors, with many of them upset with the prospect of opening AI
intertwining itself with another social media platform.
As we know, they famously made a deal with Reddit, and I think
this is only worsened by the fact that there's definitely
been an uptick of Pinterest users complaining about the
increasing amount of AI generated content on the
platform. And to combat this, Pinterest
has also added controls that let users limit the amount of AI
that they see in their feeds. But this isn't perfect yet and I
think AI continues to sneak on through.
So with many users upset with the amount of AI on Pinterest,
it makes sense that they wouldn't want open AI to acquire
the platform as well. That brings us to my next story
for today and I wanted to talk about everything going on with
Annas Archive. This is a little bit more niche,
but obviously that is what we love here on Mini Tech and Mini
Scroll. So if you're unfamiliar with
Anna's archive, it's a search engine for quote UN quote shadow
libraries, which are essentially repositories of media ranging
from books, music to films that are not readily available.
For example, they may be behind a paywall or copyrighted or
whatever. So one of the most famous
examples of this is Z Library or Z Library, however you want to
say it, which hosted a lot of academic articles and textbooks
and even just more general books.
At one point it had become the world's largest e-book library.
I feel like when I was at university, I had heard of Z
Library. I have heard of people using it
and it has repeatedly been shut down or blocked or kind of just
faced constant legal battles over the years because of the
copyright issue. So Anna's Archive emerged out of
the backlash to Z Library and it was launched in 2022.
According to the blog on Anna's archive, the goal is to quote
contribute to the preservation and liberal preparation of human
knowledge. So it essentially operates as a
search engine that helps users find certain pirated material
elsewhere. As the blog continues, quote, we
focus on preservation, not on making books easily searchable
and downloadable are fostering a big community of people who
contribute new books. In terms of the archives
preservation efforts, they did make headlines quite recently
after allegedly scraping 86 million music files from
Spotify. But that brings us to the story
that I wanted to discuss today, and that is that the Anna's
archives.org domain name has reportedly been suspended.
The operator, Anna archivist on Reddit shared a post to the R
slash Anna under score archive subreddit to explain the
situation. As it reads, quotethe.org domain
apparently has been suspended. Our other domains work fine, and
we've added some more. This unfortunately happens to
shadow libraries on a regular basis.
We don't believe this has to do with our Spotify backup.
So even though Anna's archive is still working on other domains
names, I have seen an array of tik toks including people who
are very upset thatthe.org domain name has been suspended.
So onset that now. And now because some of you
people don't know how to fucking not post every single thing you
goddamn do online, especially under Reddit, we lost Anna's
archives. Now I don't get free books
anymore. I literally got my free version
of the constitution from Anna's archives.
OK, all The Hunger Games books. While these suspensions and
blocks definitely happen often, I thought this was an
interesting story to cover because of the conversations
that we are having online at the moment, all about the return to
physical media and how important it is to actually own your own
content and media, whether that be through physical books, CDs
or whatever. There is definitely growing
discontent among Internet users when it comes to being at the
whims of big tech or streaming platforms, especially when it
comes to consuming content. And archival tools like Anna's
Archive kind of share a similar sentiment.
I think in that these shadow libraries want to democratize
knowledge, ensure access to knowledge and also ownership of
content in some degree. This is also one side of the
Internet that we don't talk about super often.
We have covered something similar in an infinite scroll
episode when we spoke about the Internet Archive.
But I think the conversations around piracy, copyright, as
well as ensuring access to information are really
interesting and important, and I'm definitely curious to hear
what you guys make of all this. I have two more stories and they
are both slightly shorter. I think the first one I wanted
to mention is UK specific, but I thought it was noteworthy for
today's episode. So according to a recent report,
Reddit has officially overtaken TikTok in terms of site visits
in the UK. According to a report published
by the UK Office of Communications, it was revealed
that Reddit is the fourth most visited social media media
service. As the 2025 report reads, quote
Reddit experience double figures year on year growth in their
monthly audiences for the second year in a row, now reaching 60%
of UK Internet users, up from 48% in May 2024.
This marks an 88% increase in two years, placing it ahead of
TikTok as the fourth most visited social media service.
While this obviously is UK specific, I do always think it's
quite interesting to look at how other people in other countries
around the world are consuming media and using social media
because I think it can be an interesting way to kind of maybe
see what's coming or things to kind of look out for in
different media landscapes around the world.
As for why Reddit is gaining popularity, there are definitely
a few reasons. Michael Savage for The Guardian
makes the claim that has a lot to do with Google's changing
search algorithm, which I can definitely see and I agree with.
He notes that Google's move to prioritize content from Russian
forums definitely benefits Reddit.
And this is something I've actually only noticed recently.
Maybe it was only rolled out to me recently or I just don't pay
attention when I Google search things these days, but
underneath the search bar there was an option to click forms so
you're only directed to certain forms instead of just websites.
On top of this, Reddit has also struck a deal with Google for
its AI, which I think we have spoken about before, but that
could have also helped the platform gain popularity and
site visits. As Michael Savage continues
quote, A recent deal with Google that allows the company to train
its AI model on Reddit's content also appears to have provided a
boost. Reddit is the most cited source
for Google AI overviews, which is likely to see more people
directed to its forums. I think the increase in AI
online also benefits Reddit, not just because of the fact that it
is popping up in AI overviews, but because I think people who
are tired of AI or distrustful of it might want to turn to
platforms that highlight human experiences, communities, and
stories. And I'm sure over the years,
many of us have just become accustomed to adding Reddit at
the end of the search query on Google to hear from real people.
So I think that also plays into Reddit's growth here.
And from a youth perspective or Gen.
Z perspective, since obviously we are Centennial World, we know
that Gen. Z are drawn to platforms like
Reddit because of the anonymity that it offers growing up in a
time when literally everything is publicized or shared online.
Gen. Z have more of a tendency to be
private and mysterious online, at least compared to millennials
where Reddit definitely fits neatly into this category.
I do think Reddit has also become less manosphere focused
since like the mid twenty 10s so that also helps expand its user
base. But going back to the popularity
of Reddit, I should also add that the time spent on Reddit
per day is significantly lower than the other platforms in the
top five according to this UK based report.
For example, YouTube, Facebook slash Messenger, Instagram and
TikTok are all between 20 and like 50 minutes where Reddit is
full. So that just tells me people
aren't necessarily passively scrolling through Reddit where
they're on the platform for a really specific reason.
And of course, that does make it quite a powerful tool for brands
who are like seeking to answer a specific question or solve a
particular problem or say influencers who are part of a
specific niche to kind of build awareness.
But as we know, credit has always struggled to monetize
through these kind of partnerships, which is why the
deals with AI giants are so significant.
Our last story for today is unfortunate, and it's probably
one of the biggest stories in social media tech this week.
And that is everything happening with Grok.
So Grok, which is obviously X's AI as we've spoken about before,
has come under fire after the rollout of a new feature a
couple weeks ago. Basically, this feature allows a
user to ask the bot to edit a photo, any photo, without the
permission of the owner, or if the photo includes a person, it
doesn't need the permission of the person in the photo.
Unfortunately, this feature was quickly used for nefarious and
frankly disgusting reasons. Users started asking the AI to
remove clothing from people featured in various images.
According to The Verge, AI authentication company Copy
Leaks reported that quote, the trend to remove clothing from
images began with adult content creators asking Gruck for sexy
images of themselves. After the release of the new
image editing feature, users then began applying similar
prompts to photos of other users, predominantly women, who
did not consent to the edits. Gruck was not only allowing for
clothing to be removed from these photos, but these edits
also included putting people in these pictures in sexual or
degrading positions and situations.
And of course, it was often women and girls.
At the time of reassuring this episode, there's been no
apology, statement or comment from Elon Musk or XAI about this
quote UN quote trend. In fact, Elon Musk has continued
to go on and promote the feature slash tool further.
And allegedly, the only statement that has been made by
XAI is 1 and that is automated. Various media outlets have
reported that they have received an automatic response when
reaching out for comment, one that read quote legacy media
lies. Aside from this, there has been
a lot of coverage from certain publications talking about how
the AI bot has allegedly apologized itself.
Taylor Lorenz, in a recent issue of Usamad, collated a number of
headlines as she writes Quote Musk's AI chatbot Grok
apologizes after generating sexualized image of young girls,
1 local NBC affiliate Headline read CBS News Local affiliates
published headlines with similar phrasing, including Elon Musk's
AI chatbot Grok apologized. The Hill, Newsweek, The
Guardian, and a slew of other outlets have similarly quoted
Grok as apologizing. She goes on to make the claim
that Grok cannot quote UN quote apologize, where any kind of
conciliatory or apologetic responses is simply pattern
recognition. And I do think this is an
important point, because it allows for the appearance of
accountability from X, but it's likely not going to lead to any
true changes to the feature. Of course, this isn't the first
time, and probably won't be the last time that Grok has
generated something of this nature.
But every time I am reporting on A, a story like this, I'm
reminded of a book by Laura Bates, the New Age of Sexism.
I cite this book all the time. I promise you it's not the only
book I've ever read. It's just super interesting.
And one of the main takeaways from this book is that we are
living in such an early stage of AI.
And while this tech is developing and we are at kind of
the ground floor quote, UN quote, we are watching misogyny
be baked into the very fabric of this kind of generative
technology. That is why it's so important to
continue obviously bring light to these stories and also
challenge the patriarchy slash misogyny in real life, not just
in tech. Because at the end of the day,
this tech is reflecting our current society, desires,
beliefs, ideals, whatever. And that is why I will probably
never stop referencing this book.
But yes, that brings us to the end of the first mini tech
scroll for 2026. I really hope you guys found the
stories interesting and I am excited to be back.
I'm feeling way less nervous than I felt in the first episode
of 2025, obviously, because now I have a year of this under my
belt. But yeah, I'm looking forward to
it. I will speak to you next week.
Lauren will speak to you guys tomorrow.
And thank you so much for listening.
Bye.