🚩There’s much criticism of VC-funded “queer wellness” brand For Them’s acquisition of Autostaddle.

Especially their (retracted) claim that their gender-tracking app uses “biometric data”, whatever that means.

Let’s dig deeper and see what’s going on.

defector.com/autostraddle-t… 💰 To gain access to the app, you must first join The Playground, a community that the company claims is “for you, for us, and For Them”. Telling us right up front who this benefits.

We’re to “invest” in this space, but unlike their actual investors, there are no returns here.

Apple’s regressive stance on sexual content being available on its largest platform is verging on a full on moral panic and it’s really gross. Entire businesses and communities have been crushed by it, and it often hurts queer and trans communities most.

theverge.com/2021/4/13/2238… When we dealt with this at Tumblr, it became my full time jobs for weeks to find incredibly complex ways to appease Apple’s censors. This happened every time they found a sexy blog they didn’t like. It’s absurd.