Medium Recommended Joe Biden Read Erotica: Report
ACCIDENT-PRONE ALGORITHM
Medium, the blogging company where anyone can publish to the site, suggested that the account belonging to President Joe Biden’s campaign might like to indulge in some erotica, the newsletter Platformer reports. Biden used Medium as an official channel during his campaign, and the site’s recommendation algorithm showed him “A is for After,” which is “a cuckold love story,” during a video meeting between a manager at the company and White House staff in 2020. The manager attempted to rectify the recommendation, following political figures and reading posts from Vice President Kamala Harris, but when the employee later logged in as the president, they saw “Getting a Piece (and Some Pizza Too).” The manager notified colleagues of the problem via a plaintive internal post, “President Joe Biden is Being Served Erotica on Medium.com,” according to Platformer. The news comes as the company yet again lays off its editorial staff, this time in the form of dozens of journalists from its respected original publications, in its latest pivot to a new business model. The company’s chief operating officer and vice president of engineering are also departing, according to Platformer.