The Trade Desk intends to acquire ad data firm Sincera, marking only its second acquisition since it launched in 2009 — a rare move for a company that usually builds, not buys.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but when the deal closes, expected in the first quarter, Sincera’s co-founder and CEO, Mike O’Sullivan, will report directly to The Trade Desk’s CEO, Jeff Green.
Why TTD is breaking its ‘build over buy’ habit
The move arms the ad tech vendor with more data to convince publishers that ads running through its platform outperform the rest of the programmatic market. In fact, Sincera’s data powered The Trade Desk’s recent “Sellers and Publishers,” spotlighting where advertising value is migrating across the premium, open internet.
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An AI app for creating nonconsensual nude images of anyone is getting the vast majority of its traffic directly from Meta platforms, where the app is buying thousands of explicit ads featuring nonconsensual nudity of celebrities and influencers. The blatant and repeated violation of Meta’s policies over the course of months is making a mockery of the company’s ability or willingness to moderate a known bad actor that at the moment appears to get the majority of its users by paying Meta directly for ads.
The app, known as Crushmate or Crush AI, has been buying ads on Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta platforms since at least early September. As first reported by Alexios Mantzarlis in his Faked Up newsletter, according to internet traffic analysis firm Similarweb, three of the domains Crush uses had around 240,000 visitors combined, with 90 percent of that traffic coming from Facebook or Instagram.
I’ve seen Meta remove some of these ads since September, but at the time of writing the same three domains that were advertised on Meta platforms and redirected to Crushmate’s services had around 350 active ads and more than 5,000 ads overall.
Most of the recent ads use the same format. They take a video a woman posted to Instagram or TikTok and show how a user can pause the video on any frame and create a nude image of her. Many of the ads, which are still active, do this to videos of the extremely popular OnlyFans creator Sophie Rain, who made headlines recently for making $43 million in one year on OnlyFans. As Mantzarlis points out, one ad nudifies Mikayla Demaiter, a model with 3.2 million followers on Instagram. Rain and Demaiter did not respond to a request for comment.
Two of the Crushmate ads
Other ads feature other real women I wasn’t able to identify and AI generated women with their clothes being “erased” by the app.
In early September, a 404 Media reader also tipped me that Crushmate was advertising its services on Facebook Marketplace.
A marketplace ad for Crushmate
I’ve confirmed that all these ads lead to the same Crushmate service that will create nonconsensual nude images and offers some of its services via a subscription plan.
Promotional copy from Crushmate's site.
I’ve recently reported about Meta running ads that feature explicit nudity, including dozens of ads that are just close up images of vaginas. I’ve also reported repeatedly about “nudify” apps buying ads on Meta platforms. When we’ve flagged these ads to Meta in the past, they removed them. Meta has also removed associated Facebook pages that are buying the ads, but Crushmate has found an easy workaround that is clearly paying off: It creates multiple Facebook pages with AI-generated profile images that look like normal people, then buys ads promoting new, different URLs that redirect to to Crushmate.
Two of the fake Facebook profiles buying Crushmate ads.
Meta did not respond to specific questions about why it’s not detecting and removing the offending ads for featuring nonconsensual nudity. As I reported last week, extensive testing by AI Forensics, a European non-profit that investigates influential and opaque algorithms, found that nudity uploaded to Instagram and Facebook as a normal user was promptly removed for violating Meta’s Community Standards. The same exact visuals were not removed when they were uploaded as ads, showing that Meta has a different standard for enforcement when it’s getting paid to push images in front of users.
“Meta prohibits ads that promote adult sexual exploitation. We have removed the violating content, enforced against violating urls, and have taken action against the associated accounts and users,” a Facebook spokesperson told me in a statement. “This is a highly adversarial space and bad actors are constantly evolving their tactics to avoid enforcement, which is why we continue to invest in the best tools and technology to help identify and remove violating content.”
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Do you know anything else about Crushmate? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at emanuel.404. Otherwise, send me an email at [email protected].
Meta removed the ads promoting the three Crushmate domains after Mantzarlis flagged them to the company. Around 230 of the same ads promoting a fourth Crushmate domain Mantzarlis found after reaching out for comment are still live on Meta’s platforms.
As we’ve previously reported, these nudify apps are some of the most harmful applications of generative AI because they make it so easy to create nonconsensual images of anyone. In the last two years, we’ve seen several examples of these apps being used by minors to create images of other minors. Last year, a survey found that 1 in 10 minors reported that their friends or classmates have used AI tools to generate nudes of other kids. As the Crushmate ads show, minors don’t need to go to the dark corners of the web in search of these tools. Meta is getting paid to popularize them.
Dr. Dhivya Srinivasa said she cancels work for one school event per child a year.
Ellie Thorne
Dr. Dhivya Srinivasa is a double-board-certified surgeon who runs a private practice in California.
Srinivasa had three kids while pursuing her medical career and is glad she didn't delay motherhood.
She shares how she manages her busy schedule by prioritizing specific events with her kids.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dr. Dhivya Srinivasa, a California-based breast reconstruction surgeon. Business Insider verified her employment with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Some moms are at every PTA meeting, class party, and basketball game. Then, they're cooking dinner when their kids arrive home. You won't find me doing all of that — and it doesn't mean I love my kids any less.
I grew up with a physician as a mom. She had me and my siblings during her residencies. When I was born in India, my dad told my mom she didn't have to give up her career and they would make it work.
I grew up with strong examples of working parents and I hope to pass this on to my children. You can balance a career with parenting and what being an involved parent can look like is evolving.
I often felt misunderstood as a parent in my working environment
When I became pregnant during my fourth year of residency in 2013, I remember not wanting to tell anyone. I was the only female in my class.
I was a hard worker and supervising physicians' favorite, but I felt like things shifted when I got pregnant.
One time during residency, I remember being in a long surgery that was going past the scheduled end time. I let my attending physician know I needed to leave for a prenatal appointment, which was common practice for health-related appointments.
He said, "Sometimes I feel like you book them early on purpose." He had two kids of his own and should have known there weren't ever later appointments.
I had my first child in 2014 while working as a medical resident, and I was back at work four weeks after a difficult c-section, often pushing through 80 to 100-hour workweeks with an infant at home. Luckily, I had a nanny and my in-laws supporting me, and I completed my residency.
I had my second child in 2016 while completing a fellowship in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Michigan from 2015 through 2018.
After having my third child in 2020, I started working on faculty at a hospital in L.A. Some doctors I worked with didn't acknowledge I'd just had a baby. I'd pump in my car as there was no lactation area in the hospital. I felt my colleagues doubted my ability, but I made it clear being a mom only made me a better surgeon.
I'm now a double board-certified plastic surgeon and run my own business for breast reconstruction.
Learning how to succeed at both
I started my private practice in September 2021. Now, I can be a physician and mother on my terms.
I had kids early in my career on purpose. My kids are now five, eight, and 10. I didn't want to wait and compromise my fertility for my career. I knew I could succeed at both, but it meant making sacrifices.
I had to learn where my energy was best directed. I used to prioritize pick-up until realized my kids didn't really care about that. But, I value their education, so I do their homework with them every night.
I've also learned to be proactive when selecting which of my children's events I can attend. When I first started my practice, I didn't block my schedule for certain school events. After my oldest child shared with me that he missed having me at these events, I started proactively blocking out time for my children — even if it meant requesting classroom activities from teachers at the start of the school year.
Now, I always take off Halloween for classroom parties and second-semester field trips. In the office, We've established color codes on my calendar so they're aware when a calendar event is non-negotiable and dedicated to my children.
As my kids get older, I make those decisions with input from my kids about what events are most meaningful to them. I cancel work for one on-campus activity per kid a year. On those days, we go all out. It isn't just a stop by the school for a few minutes, we dress up and plan our activities weeks in advance.
Their excitement, and mine as well, have shown me it isn't the number of events you're at as a parent, but your presence at the ones you can come to.
I've sacrificed at work too. I moved to running my practice versus the world of medical academia. In opening my practice, I had to make the tough decision to stop working with trainees. Though I love teaching, it slows down cases and I had to prioritize my family.
It does take a village — and it makes my kids well-rounded people
My husband Ravi is an interventional radiologist and professor. He is the parent the school calls if a kid needs to be picked up because I'm sometimes in surgery. While he also works full time, he's easier to reach due to set office hours and less time in the operating room.
We also talk to teachers at the beginning of the year about our setup so they know I won't be available at the last minute. I love that they learn that dads might be the first point of contact, not just moms.
My kids spend almost every weekend with their grandparents and sometimes weekday evenings. They are getting a rich education by spending time with their first-generation immigrant grandparents and have learned things I'd never be able to teach them. This assuages any guilt I have about my schedule.
Similarly, I have precious videos of my husband at the park with my kid, which he'd send to me while I was working.
These sweet moments are made sweeter as they show that my kids have so many different people who love them.
Retired police officer Anthony Williams was falsely accused by American Airlines of human trafficking his own wife, a lawsuit alleges.
Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images
An American Airlines passenger is suing the airline, saying he was racially profiled.
The complaint says Anthony Williams was falsely accused of trafficking his own wife.
Williams' lawsuit also highlights similar claims of racial profiling by the airline in 2023 and 2024.
A Black passenger is suing American Airlines, saying he was racially profiled and falsely accused of trafficking his wife on a 2022 flight from Phoenix to Miami.
Former police officer Anthony Williams and Katsiaryna Shasholka, who is white, boarded the flight to Florida for their honeymoon in September 2022.
According to the suit, filed in the Southern Florida District Court, a fellow passenger believed Williams was trafficking his wife, Shasholka, and reported this to American Airlines employees Michael Wilfong and Angel Rodriguez.
The lawsuit says that the employees did not question Williams or conduct any kind of investigation but instead "falsely reported to law enforcement that Plaintiff Anthony was human trafficking his own wife."
When the aircraft landed at Miami International Airport, Williams and Shasholka were "falsely imprisoned" by American Airlines staff who escorted them off the aircraft, the suit says.
The two then waited, "confused and embarrassed," as the other passengers disembarked the plane and walked past them before they were questioned by police officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department, and were "detained, falsely imprisoned, questioned, and humiliated," the suit says.
It says the biracial couple were "racially profiled, and discriminated against based on their race by employees and/or agents of American Airlines, at Miami InternationalAirport."
Williams and Shasholka seek damages in excess of $75,000, not including interests and costs.
The complaint then lists three other instances between 2023 and 2024 in which Black passengers say they were mistreated by American Airlines.
In September 2023, singer-songwriter and guitarist David Ryan Harris — who played in John Mayer's band for two decades — was accused of trafficking his children on an American Airlines flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles.
Harris and two of his sons were met by an airline employee and police officers at the top of the jetway as they were deplaning.
"A flight attendant had called ahead with some sort of concern that his biracial children were not his children, because they were unresponsive during an interaction with her," the lawsuit says.
American Airlines declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.
A fun piece of Apple history has been revealed thanks to a look at how Sonos started and where it is headed. It turns out that ‘father of the iPod‘ Tony Fadell wanted Apple to buy the premium audio company.
Fadell tried to persuade Steve Jobs to do so, but Apple’s co-founder refused, saying that he instead wanted to sue the company …
Palestinian PM Mohammad Mustafa has stated that it is unacceptable for any entity other than the Palestinian Authority to govern the Gaza Strip in the future.
The individual fell ill shortly after the flight departed from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport on Tuesday, and a doctor onboard was unable to rescue them.
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