Instagram's problem with plus-size bodies, an illustrated guide to the least-reliable people on the internet, and a mask with real potential once the breathing thing is sorted
THE BIG STORY Instagram's problem with plus-size bodies
When Karina Fatale shared a photo of herself in an outdoor shower in Hawaii with her thousands of followers on Instagram, "it got amazing traction," she said. "I felt so beautiful."
Fatale, who has been posting and advocating for plus-size bodies since 2014, was nude in the photo, but careful to comply with the same Instagram rules — no nipples, no sex acts or genitals — that have allowed celebrities like Kim Kardashian to post tasteful nudes there for years. But Instagram took down the picture anyhow.
While there's no hard data to prove it, influencers say that there's a clear pattern of plus-size women having revealing photos taken down despite complying with Instagram's rules, Lauren Strapagiel reports. And some believe that the automated systems coded to detect nudity might be to blame.
Those systems often carry the biases of the people who programmed them, and may be less familiar with larger bodies if they've been trained on the images we typically see in the media, where such bodies are less visible. "Technology and discrimination goes way back," said Mathieu Lemay, an artificial intelligence consultant. "Anytime you design a new project or a new prototype you have to think about how it is going to break."
 Katana Fatale's photo, which was taken down by Instagram STAYING ON TOP OF THIS The pretend experts
Along with the rise of the pandemic, there has been a growing cottage industry of pretend disease experts who've found a lucrative niche in peddling claims about the virus that the actual experts say are demonstrably false.
Some spread hoaxes and pseudoscience and can be hard to tell apart from medical authorities considered legit by their peers. Keeping track of these people and their agendas can be tiring work, but luckily, Jane Lytvynenko has done the heavy lifting for you — here's a guide to the least reliable people on the internet right now.
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SNAPSHOTS A shooting spree in a busy shopping and restaurant strip in Arizona on Wednesday may have been inspired by a movement of online misogynists. The shooter told police he's an incel.
President Trump said this week he'd like to hold an in-person meeting of the G7 leaders in the coming months. Senior officials from two participating countries say that was the first they'd heard of it.
The man who recorded the killing of Ahmaud Arbery has been arrested. William "Roddie" Bryan is expected to face charges including felony murder.
Qatar will make it mandatory for all residents to install its coronavirus tracking app. The country has one of the highest reported infection rates in the world.
Workers wearing protective masks walk on a street in Qatar's capital, Doha, May 17. (Karim Jaafar / Getty Images) A VERY GOOD TEST A positive, negative development
President Trump yesterday gave reporters an update on a coronavirus test he'd recently taken, and I'm just going to post the transcript here and more on. There's a video of it in the post, but for now, behold poetry in motion.
"I tested very positively in another sense this morning," Trump told reporters outside the White House on his way to Michigan.
"I tested positively toward negative, right?"
"I tested perfectly this morning," he continued. "Meaning I tested negative."
"But that's a way of saying it: positively toward the negative."
Mandel Ngan / Getty Images IT'S NEWS O'CLOCK Billie Eilish gets blurred
In the latest edition of News O'Clock, our daily podcast hosted by Hayes Brown and Casey Rackham: why you can't see Billie Eilish's house on Google Maps, the strange situation with coronavirus testing, and Anne Helen Petersen on how our shopping habits have changed during the pandemic. Check it out here!
FASHION VS. BREATHING No one cared who I was until I put on the mask
South African designer Sentletse Diakanyo recently shared a photo modeling his latest product: a beautiful, stylish leather face mask. "People want something different," he told BuzzFeed News.
The response has been massive, and mostly hilarious. "Who needs oxygen when you have all that drip?" one reply joked. Others shared their practical concerns with how this whole situation is supposed to work when it comes to...breathing? Diakanyo says he's taken the feedback on board and will make sure his leather face masks will "allow ease of breathing," which sounds like a good idea. "It will have cotton lining inside and perforation. It's not hot at all and easy to breathe in [compared to] some cloth faces masks I've tried," he said. "Besides, we're heading into winter in South Africa." This is a 100% pro-breathing newsletter, Tom BuzzFeed, Inc.
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