Elon Musk the dadfluencer + The female creator safety tax

+ A puppygirl hacker polycule, Alix-on-Alex crime, Uber for bodyguards, Trump slopaganda, and the truth behind Spotify's "ghost artists"

Feb 14, 2025

Hi everyone! My first column for Zeteo went live this week and it’s on Elon Musk’s attempt to rebrand himself as a dadfluencer by bringing his kid to public events, (read an excerpt below). I’m going to be writing regularly for Zeteo on Silicon Valley and tech, so I’ll be letting you know when those pieces publish.

In the meantime, I’m chasing down some bigger features and traveling for the next couple weeks (NYC next week for On Air Fest, then Palm Springs to see family). So if I’m not spamming you with my newsletter as often that’s why. Hope everyone is staying warm out there and happy Valentine’s day! 💓

Here’s a piece I wrote for The Atlantic on why the wifi heart emoji is the purest expression of love.

Elon Musk the Dadfluencer

On Tuesday afternoon, as Elon Musk met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, his 4-year-old son, X Æ known as “X,” scrambled around at his knees. Trump introduced the child, saying, “This is X, and he’s a great guy. High IQ.”

Shortly after the appearance, X's mother, Claire Elise Boucher, known as Grimes, responded in frustration. "He should not be in public like this," she tweeted. Despite Boucher's protests, the story was quickly packaged across social media as a heartfelt "father-son moment."

"Say what you like about Elon Musk but as a dad I think there is something rather wonderful about him speaking in the Oval Office with his son on his shoulders," one X user with over 63,000 followers tweeted. "Father’s Love ❤️ doesn’t have to be judged by money," another user tweeted alongside a photo of X on Musk's shoulders. "Elon Musk is a great father."

The Oval Office incident was just Musk's latest attempt to rebrand himself from a ruthless, calculating billionaire to a down-home family man. Musk has done this by mimicking the behavior and tactics of parenting influencers, who leverage their children to build and shape their public image and foster a deeper loyalty from their audience. "Kids change the way that your brand is seen," said Fortesa Latifi, author of the forthcoming book, Like, Follow, Subscribe, about the family influencing industry.

By combining the personal branding tactics of parentfluencers with strategic political endorsements, Musk is crafting an image that appeals to far-right constituencies. His dadfluencing not only humanizes him, but also aligns with the traditional and nationalist values that resonate within far-right ideologies.

"It isn't a coincidence that he's doing this at the same time as Vance is pushing this pro-natalist agenda, and we're seeing the extended rollback of reproductive rights," Latifi said. "It all ties together."

Read my full piece on Elon Musk leveraging his child to rebrand himself in my first column for Zeteo.

How Spotify is Ruining Music: ‘It’s about how power works’

Over the past decade, no platform has had more of impact on what we listen to than Spotify. Journalist Liz Pelly knows this better than anyone, and recently published the book Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist.

On this week’s Power User, I spoke to Liz about the profound impact Spotify has had on the music industry, culture, and the way we consume sound. In our interview, she reveals the truth about so-called "ghost artists" and other tactics the company has employed to squeeze artists and upend the content ecosystem.

We also dig into how Spotify's algorithm-driven playlists have reshaped not just listening habits but also the very nature of music production, artist careers, and industry power structures. Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get new episodes in your feed!

The Female Creator Safety Tax

For Passionfruit this week, I wrote about what I’m calling the The Female Creator Safety Tax. In a recent interview with YouTube duo Colin and Samir, Pokimane, the most-followed woman on Twitch, opened up about the substantial financial burden she bears to ensure her safety. “I literally have people that I have to pay monthly to essentially scour and see whether my address is online anywhere and then take it down,” she added. “I wish that wasn’t the case.

Pokimane revealed that she spends over five figures a month on various security measures. The money goes to protect her from myriad threats, including doxxing, deepfakes, unauthorized use of her likeness, and stalking. She has hired teams to scour the internet for personal information. She’s even renovated her living spaces to prevent recognition from leaked photos.

Though male creators also deal with security threats, female creators attract far more scrutiny and are forced to bear extremely high financial costs of protecting their safety. And despite the growing prominence of many female creators, widespread safety solutions tailored to their needs are severely lacking.

This absence forces female creators to shoulder what can be termed a "safety tax." The female creator safety tax represents the additional, often substantial, financial and social costs required to protect themselves from threats that disproportionately target women.

The creators of "The Bop House," a collective of OnlyFans models, had to hire security due to fans showing up uninvited at their residence. On Monday, a deranged stalker of one of the Bop House founders, an OnlyFans creator named Sophie Rain, was arrested after a standoff with a SWAT team and the Coast Guard.

Ignoring threats or misjudging safety protocols can have devastating consequences. In 2016, YouTuber Christina Grimmie was fatally shot by a stalker after he spent months tracking her online. Until the public and law enforcement agencies begin to take threats against women seriously, women creators will continue to shoulder the burden of increased safety costs.

What I’m reading

The Path to American Authoritarianism

What comes after democratic breakdown. - Foreign Affairs

Journalist Max Fisher said of this article: “The single most important article yet published on Trump's second term, by two scholars who since 2016 have been consistently correct in anticipating Trump's effect on our political system. Everyone should read it.”

Elizabeth Holmes Breaks Her Silence in First Interview from Prison

The former Theranos CEO, convicted of fraud, shares details of her life behind bars and separation from her family. - People

A ‘True Crime’ Documentary Series Has Millions of Views. The Murders Are All AI-Generated

The creator of a viral "true crime" series where the murders were all invented by AI explains how he did it. - 404 Media

Elon Musk’s A.I.-Fuelled War on Human Agency

Musk seeks not only to dismantle the federal government but to install his own technological vision of the future at its heart—techno-fascism by chatbot. - New Yorker

My (Dis)Enchantment with Andrew Callaghan

Andrew Callaghan has returned to the creatorverse. Steven Asarch speaks to Callaghan and examines his own Channel 5 fandom. - Passionfruit

The Soy Right Needs A Safe Space

We are being ruled by the softest losers alive. - Dialectics of Decline

“They have special diets are afraid of seed oils. They wear skinny jeans and have meticulously groomed beards. They talk non stop about masculinity, drive pickups, and wear plaid, but can’t change a tire to save their lives. While the right spent years mocking liberals for wanting “safe spaces” and echo chambers, for crying about identity politics, for being frail, fragile, overly-sensitive weaklings, they were slowly transforming into the perfect mirror of all of it — without the nagging concern for equality or any of that lib shit.”

Soy Right ascendant

“Does this odd and annoying mix of weepy fragility, oblivious self-importance, and obscene corniness sounds familiar? It should, because as a matter of tone it’s identical to the psychotically annoying way that Gamergaters tweeted in 2015.” - Read Max

More fun stuff

A group known as the 'puppygirl hacker polycule' has leaked thousands of police training and policy manuals from departments across the country.

Pizza chains really want you to smell like pizza! Papa John's has announced a garlic bath bomb while Domino's has designed a pepperoni-pizza scented perfume.

DRAMA ALERT! Probiotic soda brand Poppi and its direct competitor Olipop are engaged in a messy online feud taking place in TikTok comments.

There is a lot of (very) circumstantial evidence pointing to an estrangement between influencer Alix Earle and her podcast boss Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper.

Ozempic (and similar drugs) reduce people's cravings for processed food. So the junk food industry is trying to design foods that people will still get addicted to and reduce the effectiveness of the drugs.

A TikTok creator who specializes in asking people how much money they make is now making $1.6 million a year herself.

There’s a new “Uber for bodyguards” app where you can book personal bodyguards to follow you around on demand.

RPLY is a new AI assistant that responds to missed texts (please god I need this!)

Do not try to put cheese in a chocolate fountain.

The Sabrina and Dolly collab is here.

TikTok is back in the app store.

Kanye West and Bianca Censori have NOT broken up.

The NYT is still looking for a new co-host for The Daily.

Thousands of Danish citizens are launching an effort to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland. They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”

Louisiana school districts facing teacher shortages are replacing instructors with AI tutoring software.

🦀 Anonymous Crab 🦀

published a great critique of Duolingo’s stunt killing off it’s famous bird mascot from a marketing standpoint.

taylorlorenz3.0

A post shared by @taylorlorenz3.0

Fake IDs are getting really, really good thanks to advancements in technology. A new generation of “unbeatable” fake IDs is bedeviling bouncers.

People are already dying after Musk/Trump cut off funding to USAID. A 71 year old woman died after being sent home from USAID-funded hospital, while others die after hospitals close in refugee camps.

Musk and Trump AI motivational slopaganda got 700 million views on TikTok.

Mice with two dads have been created using CRISPR.

Temu sellers are using fake U.S. postage labels to avoid delivery costs within the U.S.

DOGE's Edward "Big Balls" Coristine launched a privacy-focused image-sharing site in 2021 that allowed users to create custom URLs. The URLs that redirected to Coristine's site referenced the sale of child sexual abuse material, racial slurs, and rape.

Eva, a chatbot developed in Paraguay, allows people to interact with a woman awaiting sentencing for alleged drug trafficking.

BuzzFeed’s is launching an AI-powered social media platform to help “spread joy.”

Sam Altman slammed Elon saying that his whole life is probably from a position of insecurity, he’s not a happy person, and “I feel for the guy.”

Alia Dastagir’s new book, To Those Who Have Confused You to Be a Person, about the harassment, and abuse women face on the internet, is coming out next week. Pre order it here! It’s such essential reporting.

Dastagir uses critical analysis from psychologists, sociologists, neuroscientists, technologists, and philosophers to offer a uniquely deep and intimate look at what women experience during online abuse, as well as how they cope and make meaning out of violence.

My mutual Hannah is selling really adorable hand made jewelry on her website! I got a cute choker from her, these make great gifts. <3