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Grindr is facing a class action lawsuit from hundreds of users over the sharing of HIV statuses and other sensitive personal information with third-party firms.

UK law firm Austen Hays filed the claim in the High Court in London yesterday, the firm announced. The class action "alleges the misuse of private information of thousands of affected UK Grindr users, including highly sensitive information about their HIV status and latest tested date," the law firm said.

The law firm said it has signed up over 670 potential class members and "is in discussions with thousands of other individuals who are interested in joining the claim." Austen Hays said that "claimants could receive thousands in damages" from Grindr, a gay dating app, if the case is successful.

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Enlarge / Night view of company logos in Nestlé Avanca Dairy Products Plant on January 21, 2019, in Avanca, Portugal. This plant produces Cerelac, Nestum, Mokambo, Pensal, Chocapic and Estrelitas, among others. (credit: Getty | Horacio Villalobos)

In high-income countries, Nestlé brand baby foods have no added sugars them, in line with recommendations from major health organizations around the world and consumer pressure. But in low- and middle-income countries, Nestlé adds sugar to those same baby products, sometimes at high levels, which could lead children to prefer sugary diets and unhealthy eating habits, according to an investigation released recently by nonprofit groups.

The investigation, conducted by Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), says the addition of added sugars to baby foods in poorer countries, against expert recommendations, creates an "unjustifiable double standard." The groups quote Rodrigo Vianna, an epidemiologist and professor at the Department of Nutrition of the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil, who calls added sugars in baby foods "unnecessary and highly addictive."

"Children get used to the sweet taste and start looking for more sugary foods, starting a negative cycle that increases the risk of nutrition-based disorders in adult life," Vianna told the organizations for their investigation. "These include obesity and other chronic non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes or high blood-pressure."

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For years, people who have found Google search frustrating have been adding “Reddit” to the end of their search queries. This practice is so common that Google even acknowledged the phenomenon in a post announcing that it will be scraping Reddit posts to train its AI. And so, naturally, there are now services that will poison Reddit threads with AI-generated posts designed to promote products. 

A service called ReplyGuy advertises itself as “the AI that plugs your product on Reddit” and which automatically “mentions your product in conversations naturally.” Examples on the site show two different Redditors being controlled by AI posting plugs for a text-to-voice product called “AnySpeech” and a bot writing a long comment about a debt consolidation program called Debt Freedom Now. 

A video demo shows a dashboard where a user adds the name of their company and URL they want to direct users to. It then auto-suggests keywords that “help the bot know what types of subreddits and tweets to look for and when to respond.” Moments later, the dashboard shows how Reply Guy is “already in the responses” of the comments section of different Reddit posts. “Many of our responses will get lots of upvotes and will be well-liked.”

The creator of the company, Alexander Belogubov, has also posted screenshots of other bot-controlled accounts responding all over Reddit. Begolubov has another startup called “Stealth Marketing” that also seeks to manipulate the platform by promising to “turn Reddit into a steady stream of customers for your startup.” Belogubov did not respond to requests for comment.

Redditors as a group have always been highly suspicious of astroturfing (the practice of artificially boosting products in an online community), bots that don’t label themselves as bots, vote manipulation, and “karma farming.” Reddit’s reliance on community upvotes and volunteer moderators who generally know their communities means that the site has felt less vulnerable to the sorts of AI spam that have taken over other social media platforms. 

Most of the Reddit accounts that Belogubov has shown as examples on his social media and on ReplyGuy’s website have been banned by Reddit. An FAQ on the site says “we send the replies from our pool of high quality Twitter and Reddit accounts. You may optionally connect your own account if you’d like the replies to come from a brand page … think of [ReplyGuy] as more of an investment—a Reddit post will be around for a long time for future internet users to stumble upon.” 

The existence of ReplyGuy doesn’t necessarily mean that Reddit is going to suddenly become a hellscape full of AI-generated content. But it does highlight the fact that companies are trying to game the platform with the express purpose of ranking high on Google and are using AI and account buying to do it. There are entire communities on Reddit dedicated to identifying and shaming spammy accounts (r/thisfuckingaccount, for example), there has been pushback against people using ChatGPT to generate fake stories for personal advice communities like r/aitah (Am I the Asshole), and Redditors themselves have found that posts on Reddit are able to rank highly on Google within minutes of being published. I have noticed low-effort posts promoting products when I end up on Reddit from a Google search. This has led to a market for “parasite SEO,” where people try to attach their website or product to a page that already ranks high on Google. “Buy aged Reddit accounts with HIGH karma for Parasite SEO,” according to a video made by YouTuber SEO Jesus. 

“Google is clearly telling us it’s smashed [downranked] loads of high-quality niche sites and meanwhile, what’s performing is Reddit, LinkedIn, and other parasites,” SEO Jesus said in a January YouTube video about how to buy accounts to “manipulate Reddit.” 

“How do we actually manipulate Reddit? How do we use it to make money and generate leads? Well the answer is we basically find pages that are already ranking, and then we want to comment underneath,” he says. “The rankings are driven by individual upvotes. Upvotes are quite easy to manipulate.” He then explains that to make a comment with affiliate links that are “obviously commercial” without it being taken down is to buy “an aged Reddit account with a lot of trust.”

“Reddit can even outrank top-performing websites,” he adds.

A spokesperson for Reddit told me that they would treat manipulation like the type ReplyGuy is doing as spam or content manipulation, and that it breaks Reddit’s rules. A transparency report released by Reddit last week found that two-thirds of all takedowns on Reddit are for spam, and 2.7 percent are for content manipulation. Reddit’s data shows that about half of the takedowns are done by Reddit’s moderators, and about half is done by Reddit staff. About three fourths of these removals are done automatically. 

London's Metropolitan Police Service has apologized for threatening to arrest a Jewish man at a pro-Palestinian protest. Video showed police officers telling Gideon Falter that his "quite openly Jewish" appearance risked provoking the protesters and threatening to arrest him for "causing a breach of the peace" if he didn't leave the area. After the video was released, the Met first apologized for the officer's language but said counter-protesters needed to be aware "that their presence is provocative." It later deleted that statement from social media and apologized again: "In an effort to make a point about the policing of protest we caused further offence," it wrote in a statement. "This was never our intention. We have removed that statement and we apologise. Being Jewish is not a provocation. Jewish Londoners must be able to feel safe in this city."

The post Brickbat: 'Openly Jewish' appeared first on Reason.com.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been warning that prescription stimulant abuse could be the next opioid epidemic. After a monthslong quest to get my hands on some legally, I can report back that the agency's fears are not only overblown; they are hurting people who legitimately need medication.

Bloomberg reported last week that a senior DEA official saw the early signs of a drug abuse crisis in the increased demand for stimulants, which are commonly used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy:

"I'm not trying to be a doomsday-er here," said Matthew Strait, deputy assistant administrator in the diversion control division said in an online seminar. But he compared the current situation with stimulants to the beginning of the opioid crisis and said "it makes me feel like we're at the precipice of our next drug crisis in the United States."

Among the factors Strait cited were stimulant abuse, the lack of standard guidelines for diagnosing ADHD, unscrupulous telehealth companies and internet advertisements, and more manufacturers making the drugs. Bloomberg reported that the agency is drafting regulations to restrict telehealth prescriptions.

I read Strait's comments with a mixture of amusement and outrage, because this year I went through the laborious process of getting diagnosed and prescribed medication for adult ADHD.

I don't remember when a doctor first diagnosed me with ADHD. It was probably in first or second grade. I have a vague memory of a doctor, not my regular pediatrician, asking me a bunch of questions. The doctor then explained in careful sentences that I had "attention deficit disorder." (This was before the "H" was added.) I don't remember what I thought back then about having a disorder. I don't recall it being a blow to my self-esteem. I was precocious and unflappable. I liked being me, and this was just another thing about me. I had brown hair. I wore glasses. I had attention deficit disorder.

I wasn't an idiot, though; I knew why I'd been sent to a special doctor. My teachers complained that I didn't stay on task, and it was creating problems in the classroom.

I didn't think there was anything unreasonable about being bored in school or fidgeting when the teachers refused to let me doodle, but I also knew time got away from me in strange ways. I often got lost in thought, staring into space while the rest of the world moved like a VHS tape on fast-forward. I forgot things constantly. Things I should remember to do, things I wanted and intended to do, obligations to friends and family. They all flitted out of my mind, making me seem thoughtless, lazy, and rude. Chores and homework piled up. Deadlines were missed. My desk drawers became stuffed with organizational notebooks and planners given to me by the well-meaning women in my life.

I struggled in college as the amount of long-term projects and research papers increased. I could watch myself fail classes, but I couldn't seem to stop it from happening. When I was offered a newspaper fellowship that required dropping out of school, it was less an opportunity than an escape hatch.

Except for a few brief stints, I've gone through almost all of my life unmedicated. The last time was when I was living in Washington, D.C., in my mid-20s. I got an Adderall prescription filled by a doctor in a small, barely furnished office after a 5-minute interview. But that lasted only a few months. I kept forgetting to get the prescription refilled. I knew myself well enough by then to find this darkly amusing.

By my late 30s, I was no longer amused. I didn't like myself anymore. I was tired of letting down people I cared about, sick of messing up at work because I was too scatterbrained, and filled with dread at the thought of spending the rest of my life like this.

Unfortunately, I live in a fairly remote area. I couldn't find a psychiatrist anywhere near me who was in my insurance network, specialized in adult ADHD, or had gotten their license after the Reagan administration. But one referred me to a psychiatrist who offers telehealth appointments.

During the early stages of the COVID pandemic, the DEA temporarily lifted restrictions on doctors' ability to write prescriptions for controlled drugs via telehealth. The agency announced last October that it was extending those policies through December.

While the DEA and Bloomberg warn that online appointments have allowed companies to push Adderall prescriptions to people who didn't really need them, it was a godsend for me. My psychiatrist was thorough and professional. After an hour-long virtual intake session, she diagnosed me with moderate to severe ADHD. It turns out that taking a year to be able to remember what day the garbage can goes to the curb is pretty definitive. She also diagnosed me with mild anxiety, likely related to being a married adult who can't remember what day the garbage truck comes.

That was the bad news. Next came more bad news: The psychiatrist was prescribing me generic Vyvanse, but there was a national shortage of the stimulants used in ADHD medicine.

As Reason's Joe Lancaster has reported, the stimulant shortage, now in its second year, is in large part a government-created problem. The DEA sets production quotas for Schedule I and II narcotics used in medications—and even though the number of ADHD diagnoses skyrocketed during the pandemic, the agency did not increase the quotas for stimulants.

In addition, New York magazine reported in February that Ascent Pharmaceuticals, a Long Island–based drug manufacturer that once produced up to 20 percent of the U.S.'s entire ADHD medication supply, has been shut down for two years because of a DEA audit of its record keeping.

My psychiatrist also explained that the DEA was getting ready to crack down on telehealth. So in addition to the pill shortage, she said, pharmacies were starting to get leery of filling telehealth prescriptions in the first place.

The psychiatrist told me to follow up with her if the pharmacy couldn't fill my prescription. I sighed to myself when she said this. One of the funniest things about having ADHD, if you enjoy gallows humor, is that getting medication for it requires the exact sort of executive function skills that people with ADHD are terrible at: short-term working memory, sequential planning, sustained focus, and follow-through. 

After several weeks of waiting for my medication to be in stock and forgetting to follow up, I reached back out to the psychiatrist, who switched my prescription to extended-release Adderall.

This time I didn't get any of the regular updates from my pharmacy. When I called, the pharmacist told me that my insurance didn't cover Adderall. It would cost around $200 for a 30-day supply. I had already spent several hundred dollars out-of-pocket for the psychiatrist.

At this point, I despaired and nearly gave up. If the DEA is worried about prescription stimulant abuse, someone should tell it that there are much easier and cheaper ways to get high than this. But after several days, my wife convinced me to call the pharmacy back and ask if there were any coupons I could use. That knocked the price down to around $40.

When I picked up my prescription, the pharmacist explained that a lot of insurers didn't want to cover adult ADHD prescriptions. "I don't know what they expect people to do," she said. "They still have to work."

ADHD doesn't go away when you turn 18, or 30, or 55. People assume that because you're not a hyperactive child anymore, you've gotten it under control, but ADHD continues to create relationship problems, trouble with work, and organizational challenges in everyday life. It's a neurodevelopmental disorder, not a behavioral one. The fact that adults with ADHD manage to more or less keep it together doesn't mean we're doing well. It just means that we're constantly working very hard at the things we're hardwired to be bad at, with the knowledge that we'll be judged for failing. It's exhausting. At its worst, it feels like always being on the verge of drowning.

If the DEA restricts telehealth and requires in-person visits to get my prescription refilled, I suppose I'll be back where I started. There's a tendency among people with ADHD, when the world yet again insists they don't have a real problem, to fall back on a mantra: "Well, I made it this far on my own, after all." But I spent three decades telling myself that. I won't anymore, and there are millions of children and adults in this country who shouldn't have to either.

The post It Took Me Months To Get the ADHD Meds the DEA Says Are Overprescribed appeared first on Reason.com.

A group working on a fall ballot initiative that would limit the rights of transgender students lost a round in court Monday when a judge sided with the state in its description of the measure.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto ruled that Attorney General Rob Bonta’s title, “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth,” is a fair description of the initiative, which would require schools to notify parents if a student identifies as transgender, ban gender-affirming care for those under 18 and place other limits on students who identify as a gender other than what they were assigned at birth.

The ruling is a setback for the group, dubbed Protect Kids California, as it tries to meet a May 28 deadline to collect 550,000 signatures to qualify for the fall ballot. The group has so far raised just over 200,000 signatures, organizers said.

Protect Kids California, led by Roseville school board member Jonathan Zachreson, put forth the initiative in November, calling it the “Protect Kids of California Act,” but a day after the group filed its paperwork with the Secretary of State, Bonta gave the initiative a new name and summary. The new name, Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth, and description made it harder to collect signatures and donations, Zachreson said, leading the group to sue for a name they said would be more reflective of the initiative’s goals.

It’s not unusual for groups to sue the state attorney general over ballot initiative language, in hopes of getting a more persuasive name or summary. Ballot language can significantly influence voters’ opinions of initiatives, according to polling by the Public Policy Institute of California, especially among voters who aren’t well informed on issues. Judges usually side with the attorney general, citing a state election code that says the court should overturn the attorney general’s ballot language “only upon clear and convincing proof that the material in question is false, misleading, or inconsistent.” As Sacramento Superior Court Judge Laurie Earl put it in 2020, “The court is not a copy editor.” 

Beyond the current initiative, challenges to LGBTQ student rights have been erupting at school boards up and down California for at least a year, largely at the behest of Assemblyman Bill Essayli, a Republican from Riverside. Essayli proposed a bill in 2023 that would require schools to notify parents about students’ gender identity, and when the bill didn’t get a hearing in the Assembly education committee he took his campaign directly to school boards.

School boards in Chino, Temecula, Roseville, Rocklin and Anderson are among those that have recently passed parental notification policies, stoking the wrath of Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom. In September, Bonta sued Chino Valley Unified over its policy, claiming it’s discriminatory, and a judge granted a preliminary injunction in October. 

Protect Kids CA originally proposed three separate initiatives addressing the rights of transgender students but last fall combined them into one. If it passes, the initiative would:

• Require students to use bathrooms that align with the gender they were assigned at birth
• Prohibit transgender girls in seventh grade or older from participating in girls sports or other girls-only activities 
• Ban gender-affirming health care — including surgery or hormone treatment — for transgender students under age 18, even if parents consent or the treatment is recommended by a doctor
• Require schools to notify parents if students change their pronouns or otherwise signal they identify as a gender other than what’s on their official student records

At a hearing Friday, Zachreson’s group argued that the state’s ballot language is biased and misleading, and doesn’t accurately reflect what the initiative would do. Bonta’s summary says the initiative would require parental notification “without exception,” but Zachreson’s group argued that schools would be required under existing law to not inform parents if students would be subject to abuse or neglect at home as a result.

Attorneys also argued over the definition of “privacy.” The California Department of Education says that students have a right to privacy on issues related to their gender identity. Attorneys for Protect Kids CA argued that the policy was never approved by voters, courts or the Legislature, and in fact federal law says parents have a right to view student records.