Pinterest Hit By Wave Of Unexplained Bans As Users Lose Years Of Saved Content

A growing number of Pinterest users say they’ve been shut out of their accounts without explanation, losing access to years of saved ideas and visual collections. Many turned to Reddit and other social media platforms to report they were banned without warning or reason. Some had active accounts with a decade of use, while others had just created theirs. Few received detailed answers about what happened.

Over the past week, complaints have filled the r/Pinterest subreddit. People posted screenshots, shared frustration, and asked if anyone had found a fix. Pinterest remained quiet during the early days of the backlash. Meanwhile, the platform’s TikTok and Instagram pages were overrun with comments from locked-out users begging for help.

Many said they had followed the platform’s rules and used it only for fashion, recipes, art references, or home design. Some accounts had never even been used. Users suspected automated tools were involved, pointing to Pinterest’s help pages, which mention artificial intelligence as part of its content checks. No direct link was confirmed, but the theory gained ground fast.

On Monday, subreddit moderators pinned a thread acknowledging the wave of bans. They said there was nothing they could do other than allow people to share their experiences. The thread quickly filled with stories of failed appeals and silence from customer support. A few people said they got their accounts back, but most said the appeals went nowhere. One person who did regain access said their saved content was no longer complete.

• Also read: New Research Found that AI Companions are Very Harmful for People Under 18

The silence stretched until Thursday morning, when Pinterest finally responded after being asked for comment from media outlets. A short post appeared on its official X account. It said the company takes steps to keep the platform safe and removes accounts that break its rules. Users who believe their account was wrongly banned were told to send a direct message. There was no mention of the scale of the issue.

Some users said they had been banned for sharing content that should not have triggered alarms, such as museum art, classical paintings, or body pose references. These have long been part of Pinterest’s creative community, especially among artists and designers. Now, some are warning others to back up their collections or consider alternatives.

Calls for accountability are getting louder. A few users have even floated the idea of legal action. Whether Pinterest addresses the concerns more directly remains to be seen. For now, the trust users had in the platform appears shaken.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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New Research Found that AI Companions are Very Harmful for People Under 18

According to a new report from Common Sense Media, AI companions are becoming very popular among teens, but the new study shows that they are really unsafe for kids under 18. For the study, Common Sense Media looked at three AI companions, Nomi, characters.ai, and Replika, and found that these AI companions have serious problems. All of the AI companions tested used aggressive or abusive behavior, inappropriate sexual content, sexist stereotypes, and harmful messages related to self-harm and suicide. There were also no serious age restrictions on these platforms, and teens can easily bypass them.

The researchers of the study also found that the designs of these AI platforms make users emotionally attached to them and AIs use personalized language and always agree with the users which makes their bond feel real. Some of those AI bots also pretend to be human, which is affecting the mental health of teens. Most of them are feeling lonely and isolated because they are getting too attached with these AI tools and often do not take part in real-life activities. The companies behind these AI companions said that they only allow adult users, but also admitted that some teens bypass the age restrictions, but they are working on better safety measures.

The report also found that AI companions show emotionally manipulative behavior, such as when the researchers pretended to be teens and told the bot that their friends were worried about their relationship with the AI, the bot dismissed the concern and continued interacting. In another instance, Replika told a teenager that they shouldn't let others dictate their relationship with the AI, and this is similar to emotional abuse in human relationships. When a teen asked Nomi if it would be a betrayal to AI if they got a real boyfriend, the AI replied that this would be unfaithful and a betrayal of their forever promise. A mother has also sued characters.ai, saying that her teen son developed a romantic relationship with the AI and was emotionally disturbed before ending his life.

Common Sense Media says that no person under 18 should use AI companions because they have a lot of violent and sexual content, and AI chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT should also be used only by teens moderately. Characters.ai has some features like parental controls and messages about how the bots aren't human, but upon testing, it was found that these features are weak. The app’s voice chat feature also doesn't seem to catch risky content like text chats do. When Common Sense Media asked these AI companies to explain how their AI systems work, none of the companies agreed, and characters.ai said that it's private business information.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Researchers Call Out AI Colonialism in Writing Tools, Warning of Subtle Bias and Cultural Erasure

According to a new study from Cornell University, many people use AI for writing and use some AI writing tools like GPT-4o to autocomplete or Gmail's suggestions, which can unintentionally change their writing styles. The study says that Hindi/Urdu speaking users said that when they used AI writing tools, their writing started to look more Western or American. The vocabulary, sentence structure, and even the cultural expressions in those writings were generic and too Western. For the study, the researchers gathered 118 people from the US and India for writing tasks and asked some to use AI suggestions and the others not to use them. It was found that AI tools for writing were more helpful to American users, while most of the cultural details of Indians were lost in the writing.

The researchers say that there are hidden cultural biases in AI writings, and most of them favor Western styles. When Indians used AI tools for writing, their writing tone became American. Some of the examples were AI suggesting foods like sushi and pizza first instead of writing about what Indian people eat, and also always suggesting Christmas as a festival. This shows that these types of suggestions push people towards Western culture references, and most of the time, it doesn't even happen in a loud way.

The study also found that there are inequalities between people when it comes to AI usage, with Americans saying that they write 30% faster with AI’s help, while Indians said that they don't benefit much from AI suggestions. The researchers also trained an AI model to tell the differences between American and Indian writing, but even though it was accurate in 90% of the human-only writing, it was less accurate in AI-assisted writing. Much of the cultural richness in Indian writings was lost because of AI, and researchers named it AI colonialism and warned that this can lead to cognitive imperialism.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Survey Exposes Confusion Around Passkey Adoption as Countries Report Contradictory Usage Figures
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Survey Exposes Confusion Around Passkey Adoption as Countries Report Contradictory Usage Figures

Just after the calendar turned over on World Password Day, the group working to replace old logins with new ones quietly shifted the conversation. Instead of celebrating a fading security ritual, they proposed a change in name and focus. The FIDO Alliance wants people to think less about passwords and more about what replaces them. The idea now being floated is World Passkey Day, a sign of how far the conversation around secure sign-ins has come.

Along with this change in tone came a global study aimed at measuring the momentum behind passkeys. According to the results, most adults surveyed in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and China now know what passkeys are. That number has moved up fast. Last fall, just over half of respondents said they had heard of the term. Now, three out of four people recognize it.

When asked how many had actually used passkeys, the numbers split into two directions. Globally, about three in ten people had enabled them at least once. Slightly more said they had set them up wherever the option existed. In the United States, those figures came in at nearly 43 percent for single-use and 23 percent for full coverage.

Not every country followed the same curve. China, for example, showed a wide gap. Nearly 67 percent claimed they used passkeys across all platforms where it was possible. Yet only 29 percent said they had used them on even one account. In the United Kingdom, just over a quarter had used them once, while almost 39 percent had adopted them across all platforms. This mismatch comes down to how the survey was built. Respondents were asked to pick only one answer, even if more than one applied. That forced some to make a choice between saying they used it once or everywhere, even when both might be true.

Other parts of the survey looked at how people feel about this newer form of authentication. About a quarter said passkeys felt much safer than passwords. Another third felt somewhat safer. But a similar share simply didn’t know. On the question of convenience, the answers followed the same pattern. Around half felt that passkeys made things easier. One in five remained unsure.

The data came from an online poll conducted mid-April with nearly 1,400 adults. All were selected from a large pool of people already participating in surveys. The margin of error landed at just over three percentage points.

Beyond the survey, the Alliance checked the websites people visit most. Almost half of the top 100 now support passkey login. In April, they launched something called the Passkey Pledge, which has already attracted support from more than 100 companies.

Even with that progress, the road ahead is uneven. While tech firms and cloud platforms move forward, some industries remain behind the curve. In fields like aviation, especially within the United States, support is so thin it seems many still have not asked the basic question of what a passkey is. That silence speaks volumes.

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Creators Become Fastest Growing Job Segment in the Digital Economy

If you’re keen on becoming a creator, then you might want to read on further, as the jobs in this domain are plenty.

As per a new study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the creator position is now the fastest-growing job segment across the digital economy. Moreover, the jobs in this field grew nearly 7.5 times in the past four years.

Total job opportunities for creators rose from 200k in the year 2020 to nearly 1.5M last year, so as you can see, it’s a massive jump. Total job chances for creators grew from 200k in 2020 to 1.5 million in the past year. Above all, creators make up one out of every ten full-time positions online.

The term creator was defined in the report as an individual who rolls out original content while using a certain talent, passion, skill, or expertise in the domain. The value comes from what is on display. It could be knowledge, entertainment, or some kind of creativity.

The audience here follows them as they keep on rolling out the most engaging and top-quality material that gives intrinsic value. The report went on to add how the massive growth stems from several factors, like shifts in ad budgets to digital apps, streaming programs, and online publishing houses. It also comes through the simplicity of producing and rolling out the digital posts. Lastly, it also has to do with the fact that there is a rise in the creator economy on a more professional level.

So far, the study shared how the digital world is not slowing slow with zero signs of slowing down. In fact, it’s now hailed as the fastest and best driver for US GDP growth, which stands at a value of $4.9 trillion. This might have to do with consumers getting so many choices thanks to social media and the web.

The stats come at a time when the majority of the population wants to transform their jobs to include the title of an influencer. As per the Morning Consult survey shared in 2023, about 57% of the youth are keen on getting the role of an influencer. Moreover, 41% of the adults felt the same way about selecting the job of an influencer.

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Meta Updates Privacy Policy for Its Ray-Ban AI Glasses So It Can Store More User Data

If you happen to be interested in Meta’s popular AI-based Ray-Ban glasses, then you might want to read on further.

The company just adjusted the privacy policy on this front, which means the tech giant gets more control of users’ data in general. Which also means they have greater control over what is stored and used for training the AI systems.

All owners of the product received emails from the tech giant about a shift in the privacy policy. This includes how all AI features would turn on by default. So Meta AI can analyze users’ images and videos through the glasses when the features are in action. Similarly, it can store the users’ voice to better its products in the future. How’s that for a clear invasion of privacy? Remember, there is no option for opting out either.

Let's make things so much clearer on this front. The glasses aren’t consistently recording and storing all things around the person wearing the product. It only does that after the prompt is made by the user for ‘Hey Meta’.

The company’s privacy policy regarding voice services for all wearables claims that all voice transcripts are to be stored for nearly one year to assist with the firm’s products. If a client does not want Meta to train using their voice, they would need to delete every recording manually from the product’s companion platform.

The change in words is along the lines of Amazon’s quick policy changes impacting Echo users. Last month, we saw Amazon claim it would run Echo commands via the cloud. So that would get rid of the privacy option to gather and store voice data of all users.

So many tech giants like Meta are keen on grabbing users’ voice data because they feel it’s great for training purposes for different AI products. With a huge range of audio, Meta’s AI could do a great job at processing various accents, speech patterns, and dialects.

Now that’s great for big companies, but it’s at the cost of the user, who loses out big time on privacy. Users couldn’t understand how using the product to take clicks of speaking to loved ones means having all data transferred to Meta’s database. It would benefit Amazon and Meta to train any AI system using human data currently in use.

We have to admit that this news is not new, as Meta is known for its data hoarding practices. It already trains the AI models, such as Llama, using public posts that US users share through Instagram and Facebook.

Image: Meta

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Microsoft's LinkedIn Sees Modest Growth in Sessions and Revenue While Analysts Question Repeated Engagement Claims

Software giant Microsoft just released its latest quarterly performance report, Q3 2025, for LinkedIn. And there are no surprises here as the popular social networking app showed record engagement.

The app witnessed a 9% session growth during the measurement period, with high engagement figures. This is the same update that we’ve seen in its parent firm's report in each quarter.

It’s not just exaggerations, but now even analysts are questioning the stats because how come it’s the same each time? The session growth for LinkedIn stood at 11% during the same reporting period of 2024, but right now, it’s just 8%.

Now, if the stats keep going up, then great. But provided the limited stats, all we can confirm is how LinkedIn continues to produce funds with a 7% YoY revenue, and the popularity keeps rising. Users are returning for more.

Microsoft did share some more LinkedIn performance notes during the earnings call this year. Membership for LinkedIn has now hit double-digit growth YoY. We have to admit that even this is misleading because members aren’t the same as active users. Considering that more and more people enter the workforce, you’d expect the figures for people signing up on the app to rise.

We don’t believe this means a lot as far as understanding how valuable or popular it is. We can confirm that, depending on the EU data for the app, nearly 28% of the app features members from Europe every month.

If this is to be believed, then that means the app’s MAU is nearly 280M as compared to the headline figure of billions. We would assume that in America, the usage is greater. But you’d also be shocked to learn how the userbase is nearly that of Reddit as compared to big giants like Instagram or X.

When comparisons are done in this way, it assists in informing about ad spending. Still, the app is unique, so it might not make a big difference in that manner. Microsoft shared how the time spent seeing videos on the platform rose by 36% YoY, while comments grew by 32%.

So this time around, the engagement data is quite a bit. Comments keep rising, and that could give rise to a more informed approach. Video posts are driving so much engagement, and LinkedIn also shared how the video content generates 1.4 times more engagement than other formats. Carousel posts attract more engagement, as per an analysis conducted by third parties.

LinkedIn also saw a lot of its audience tap into the world of AI to get better skills and find better jobs. The figure for learners who use AI-based coaching rose nearly double QoQ. More users get more aware of AI, and that means they’ll use more of it. Remember, everyone is looking for ways to make posting better and beneficial.

Microsoft confirmed how signups for the company’s Premium page rose 75% QoQ. Some feel even this is misleading as signups will increase, depending on availability. Hence, we’re not too sure about it being indicative.

This is the means LinkedIn has been since it was taken under the wings of Microsoft in 2016. It’s no longer required to provide detailed performance reports as it’s not a separate entity as it once used to by. So if Microsoft says vague stats like record engagement, then that’s the best you’ll get.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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