Jeff Horwitz
@jeffhorwitz.bsky.social
Reporter covering Meta, social media and other topics (hopefully) for Reuters' investigative Team.
We got Meta’s “general global playbook” for defeating advertiser verification regulations, which the company knows would reduce scams. It includes making scam ads “not findable” for regulators searching Meta’s ad library through targeted scrubbing.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show
As regulators pressure Meta to verify the identity of advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a “playbook” to stall them. A Reuters investigation examines its tactics...
www.reuters.com
December 31, 2025 at 2:38 PM
We got Meta’s “general global playbook” for defeating advertiser verification regulations, which the company knows would reduce scams. It includes making scam ads “not findable” for regulators searching Meta’s ad library through targeted scrubbing.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Sometimes I regret not going into maritime law. Everything about the below seems like a party.
December 31, 2025 at 4:52 AM
Sometimes I regret not going into maritime law. Everything about the below seems like a party.
It's been a long time since I covered straight finance, but to see analysts -- and Bloomberg -- questioning the reliability of US inflation and labor data like this is remarkable.
Strange(r) times ahead, I guess.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Strange(r) times ahead, I guess.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
CPI Report With Shutdown Voids Raises Doubts About US Inflation Data
After long-awaited government data showed underlying US inflation cooled to a four-year low in November, economists agreed on at least this much: something was off.
www.bloomberg.com
December 18, 2025 at 11:23 PM
It's been a long time since I covered straight finance, but to see analysts -- and Bloomberg -- questioning the reliability of US inflation and labor data like this is remarkable.
Strange(r) times ahead, I guess.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Strange(r) times ahead, I guess.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
To grow its ad biz in China, Meta has relied on ad agency partners given the power to create special enforcement-protected ad accounts and share them with resellers. The system produces so much fraud that Meta internally calls China its top “scam exporting nation.”
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue
A Reuters investigation reveals the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp decided to accept high levels of fraudulent advertisements from China. Internal company documents show Meta wanted to mini...
www.reuters.com
December 15, 2025 at 1:24 PM
To grow its ad biz in China, Meta has relied on ad agency partners given the power to create special enforcement-protected ad accounts and share them with resellers. The system produces so much fraud that Meta internally calls China its top “scam exporting nation.”
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
The frequency with which I see prominent ads for Instagram Teen Accounts makes me think that they're currently providing a non-negligible subsidy to to a lot of publications.
December 5, 2025 at 6:02 PM
The frequency with which I see prominent ads for Instagram Teen Accounts makes me think that they're currently providing a non-negligible subsidy to to a lot of publications.
Reposted by Jeff Horwitz
if you've been on the fence about joining the coolest club in indie tech media, now is the time
We're running a 💻 CYBER MONDAY 💻 sale. Get 25% off an annual subscription: access to all of our articles, podcasts, bonus content, FOIA Forum trainings, full text RSS feed, no ads, and support independent journalism. Get yours here: www.404media.co/cyber-monday...
December 1, 2025 at 2:44 PM
if you've been on the fence about joining the coolest club in indie tech media, now is the time
AI can be hilarious. Here's Google giving two contradictory answers to the exact same travel-related question. (Accidentally tested within 30 seconds by my wife and me on separate computers.)
November 30, 2025 at 3:46 AM
AI can be hilarious. Here's Google giving two contradictory answers to the exact same travel-related question. (Accidentally tested within 30 seconds by my wife and me on separate computers.)
The value provided by having the rough geographic location data of X users available to see is a reminder how this feature isn’t standard elsewhere. (Including here).
November 23, 2025 at 3:21 PM
The value provided by having the rough geographic location data of X users available to see is a reminder how this feature isn’t standard elsewhere. (Including here).
I’ve spent almost seven years covering Meta and have had a good deal of exposure to internal work product on teen well-being. But a Friday filing in the school district social media litigation breaks some ground on Meta’s causal findings regarding social media harm.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:48 AM
I’ve spent almost seven years covering Meta and have had a good deal of exposure to internal work product on teen well-being. But a Friday filing in the school district social media litigation breaks some ground on Meta’s causal findings regarding social media harm.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Whoever set up a functional gmail style inbox of Epstein's inbox deserves a journalism prize.
jmail.world
jmail.world
Jmail, logged in as jeevacation@gmail.com
You are logged into jeevacation@gmail.com, Jeffrey Epstein's email. Sourced from the November 2025 House Oversight Committee data release.
jmail.world
November 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Whoever set up a functional gmail style inbox of Epstein's inbox deserves a journalism prize.
jmail.world
jmail.world
Reposted by Jeff Horwitz
AI porn generator and ERP chatbot Secret Desires left millions of images and videos exposed in unsecured cloud storage. I took a look and found folders called "faceswap," where people had uploaded tons of stolen content and random photos of women www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...
Massive Leak Shows Erotic Chatbot Users Turned Women’s Yearbook Pictures Into AI Porn
Chatbot roleplay and image generator platform SecretDesires.ai left cloud storage containers of nearly two million of images and videos exposed, including photos and full names of women from social me...
www.404media.co
November 19, 2025 at 3:25 PM
AI porn generator and ERP chatbot Secret Desires left millions of images and videos exposed in unsecured cloud storage. I took a look and found folders called "faceswap," where people had uploaded tons of stolen content and random photos of women www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...
For the first time ever, I had to make a payment in crypto.
I can now confidently say that crypto payments combine the speed of a dial up modem and the ease of updating the drivers on a 1998 HP Laserjet printer.
I can now confidently say that crypto payments combine the speed of a dial up modem and the ease of updating the drivers on a 1998 HP Laserjet printer.
November 18, 2025 at 5:58 AM
For the first time ever, I had to make a payment in crypto.
I can now confidently say that crypto payments combine the speed of a dial up modem and the ease of updating the drivers on a 1998 HP Laserjet printer.
I can now confidently say that crypto payments combine the speed of a dial up modem and the ease of updating the drivers on a 1998 HP Laserjet printer.
Mystery Fuels Unease in Maine Woods: Who Bought Burnt Jacket Mountain?
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:33 PM
I knew doing scam research would put me into the "dumbest guy alive" digital ad targeting category, but nonexistent Milwaukee Brand cyberpunk staplers?
Holy hell I don't think I was ready for the ad-based internet to get even worse.
Holy hell I don't think I was ready for the ad-based internet to get even worse.
November 14, 2025 at 6:08 PM
I knew doing scam research would put me into the "dumbest guy alive" digital ad targeting category, but nonexistent Milwaukee Brand cyberpunk staplers?
Holy hell I don't think I was ready for the ad-based internet to get even worse.
Holy hell I don't think I was ready for the ad-based internet to get even worse.
Wrote about this a few weeks ago, but have an update:
X.com continues to stand up to the legal demands of British Columbia, which has demanded that the platform remove... non consensual intimate imagery in response to a court order.
news.gov.bc.ca/releases/202...
X.com continues to stand up to the legal demands of British Columbia, which has demanded that the platform remove... non consensual intimate imagery in response to a court order.
news.gov.bc.ca/releases/202...
Attorney general’s statement about social media company X challenging Civil Resolution Tribunal order
Niki Sharma, Attorney General, has released the following statement in response to social media company X applying for judicial review of a Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) order to remove a non-consensual intimate image from its platform:
news.gov.bc.ca
November 14, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Wrote about this a few weeks ago, but have an update:
X.com continues to stand up to the legal demands of British Columbia, which has demanded that the platform remove... non consensual intimate imagery in response to a court order.
news.gov.bc.ca/releases/202...
X.com continues to stand up to the legal demands of British Columbia, which has demanded that the platform remove... non consensual intimate imagery in response to a court order.
news.gov.bc.ca/releases/202...
Reposted by Jeff Horwitz
November 8, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Meant to post this from one of underlying documents:
Meta earns $3.5B ever six months in "higher legal risk" revenue from scams, and that such amount is could be the cumulative "outside order of magnitude" for fines from regulators for accepting scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Meta earns $3.5B ever six months in "higher legal risk" revenue from scams, and that such amount is could be the cumulative "outside order of magnitude" for fines from regulators for accepting scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
November 6, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Meant to post this from one of underlying documents:
Meta earns $3.5B ever six months in "higher legal risk" revenue from scams, and that such amount is could be the cumulative "outside order of magnitude" for fines from regulators for accepting scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Meta earns $3.5B ever six months in "higher legal risk" revenue from scams, and that such amount is could be the cumulative "outside order of magnitude" for fines from regulators for accepting scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
This is terrible news, as is the original decision to fold Teen Vogue -- it consistently did some of the best culture reporting on social media of any outlet, period.
Great respect to those who stood up on behalf of their newsrooms.
Great respect to those who stood up on behalf of their newsrooms.
New: Conde Nast fired four employees who were among a group that confronted the company's head of human resources on Wednesday over the decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue/recent cuts. Employees who were fired included journalists from the New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit.
November 6, 2025 at 6:05 PM
This is terrible news, as is the original decision to fold Teen Vogue -- it consistently did some of the best culture reporting on social media of any outlet, period.
Great respect to those who stood up on behalf of their newsrooms.
Great respect to those who stood up on behalf of their newsrooms.
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE AND MY FEET: A MYSTERY
My wife wanted to sell a mirror, so I listed it on Facebook Marketplace this weekend. I neglected to wear shoes for the photo.
I have since received seven offers: two for the mirror, and five for acts involving my feet. I'm now curious what's going on.
My wife wanted to sell a mirror, so I listed it on Facebook Marketplace this weekend. I neglected to wear shoes for the photo.
I have since received seven offers: two for the mirror, and five for acts involving my feet. I'm now curious what's going on.
October 29, 2025 at 1:23 AM
FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE AND MY FEET: A MYSTERY
My wife wanted to sell a mirror, so I listed it on Facebook Marketplace this weekend. I neglected to wear shoes for the photo.
I have since received seven offers: two for the mirror, and five for acts involving my feet. I'm now curious what's going on.
My wife wanted to sell a mirror, so I listed it on Facebook Marketplace this weekend. I neglected to wear shoes for the photo.
I have since received seven offers: two for the mirror, and five for acts involving my feet. I'm now curious what's going on.
I'm skeptical that Twitter/X is going to heavily discount machine learning-based AI engagement farming in favor of generative AI-based curation, but you know why not? Give it a go.
www.theverge.com/news/802480/...
www.theverge.com/news/802480/...
X is changing how it handles links to try and keep you in the app
X is making changes to better serve link-based posts and keep you in the app.
www.theverge.com
October 26, 2025 at 7:37 PM
I'm skeptical that Twitter/X is going to heavily discount machine learning-based AI engagement farming in favor of generative AI-based curation, but you know why not? Give it a go.
www.theverge.com/news/802480/...
www.theverge.com/news/802480/...
I would gladly read a followup on this focused entirely on IRBs. I've been surprised by how often researchers say they could never got approval to run tests mimicking the sort of interventions that major platforms undertake on far larger populations as a matter of course on a daily basis.
October 24, 2025 at 4:42 PM
I would gladly read a followup on this focused entirely on IRBs. I've been surprised by how often researchers say they could never got approval to run tests mimicking the sort of interventions that major platforms undertake on far larger populations as a matter of course on a daily basis.
This recent preprint on tech industry influence over external research is compelling. Beyond documenting the low rate of industry-funded researchers actually disclosing that fact, the paper points out that journals have routinely waived IRB review for industry work.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
October 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
This recent preprint on tech industry influence over external research is compelling. Beyond documenting the low rate of industry-funded researchers actually disclosing that fact, the paper points out that journals have routinely waived IRB review for industry work.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894
arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894