Move over, pervert glasses – the latest toxic trend is robogroping
Why This Matters
Key context: <p>Whenever a new technology is created, it will, without exception, immediately be used to harass girls and women</p><p>You may be familiar with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_34">rule 34</a> of the internet, which states that if something exists or can be imagined, there will almost certainly be online porn of it. Now let me introduce my rule 35: whenever a new technology is created, it will, without exception, immediately be used to harass girls and women.</p><p>See, for example, Meta’s “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/31/law-meta-pervert-glasses-mockery">pervert glasses</a>”. As anyone could have foreseen, putting a tiny camera and microphone into smartglasses would immediately lead to people using them to record and harass women. Lo and behold, that is exactly what happened. So-called manfluencers have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/09/world/manfluencers-smart-glasses-intl">filmed themselves</a> trying to flirt with women in public spaces and then uploaded the footage to TikTok. The women in these videos are often not aware they’ve been recorded until their identities are shared online and they are <a href="https://www.404media.co/meta-ray-ban-smart-glasses-pov-instagram-pickup-artists/">harassed</a> by strangers. And what’s Meta doing about this? It’s instituted a few bans and made some privacy updates, but doesn’t seem to have an appetite to properly solve the problem. Indeed, at the Meta Connect 2026 keynote, Mark Zuckerberg did <a href="https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/smart-glasses/what-was-missing-from-meta-connect-2026-an-apology">not feel the need</a> to apologize to the women whose lives have been upended by his technology.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/17/smartglasses-robogroping-toxic-trends">Continue reading...</a> This development from The Guardian highlights ongoing changes in the sector.
Whenever a new technology is created, it will, without exception, immediately be used to harass girls and womenYou may be familiar with rule 34 of the internet, which states that if something exists or can be imagined, there will almost certainly be online porn of it. Now let me introduce my rule 35: whenever a new technology is created, it will, without exception, immediately be used to harass girls and women.See, for example, Meta’s “pervert glasses”. As anyone could have foreseen, putting a tiny camera and microphone into smartglasses would immediately lead to people using them to record and harass women. Lo and behold, that is exactly what happened. So-called manfluencers have filmed themselves trying to flirt with women in public spaces and then uploaded the footage to TikTok. The women in these videos are often not aware they’ve been recorded until their identities are shared online and they are harassed by strangers. And what’s Meta doing about this? It’s instituted a few bans and made some privacy updates, but doesn’t seem to have an appetite to properly solve the problem. Indeed, at the Meta Connect 2026 keynote, Mark Zuckerberg did not feel the need to apologize to the women whose lives have been upended by his technology. Continue reading...
Curation & Context
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