Paul Stenhouse: Apple sued for false advertising, Google ads versus the news, TikTok's chubby filter

Apple has been sued for false advertising over Apple Intelligence  

As we predicted just last week, Apple has been sued in federal court, saying the features they were promised haven’t been delivered. The complaint says people would have reasonably expected the transformative features, but the delivery has been misleading.  

One ad showed Game of Thrones and Last of Us actress Bella Ramsey asking Siri for the name of someone they had dinner with at a specific restaurant – capabilities Siri doesn’t have.  

 

Google says news is worthless to their ad business  

They ran an experiment in eight European countries, removing all news results for 1% of the audience, for 2.5 months. What happened? Zero impact on their business.  

In an absolutely brutal statement, they said the value “could not be statistically distinguished from zero”. There are laws in the EU which forces Google to pay news publishers to use snippets of content in their results.  

This study will no doubt give Google leverage in future negotiations - based on this study, it seems the news business needs Google more than it needs news.  

 

TikTok’s ‘chubby filter’ has been removed  

Instead of adding makeup or glam, fun vintage effects, or cartoon scenes, this filter added a few pounds. People started posting their “before and after” pictures, with some posting how surprised how good they looked when they were a little heavier. That didn’t go down well.   

TikTok says they have removed the filter uploaded by one of its sister companies and will not be recommending the videos in its algorithm.     

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Twenty two to eleven Non News TALKSZB. It was only
a matter of time. This time last week, in fact,
I was asking our textbert Paul Stenhouse about Apple Intelligence,
Apple's much much hyped new technology that it turns out
does not live up to the hype, at least not yet. So, yes,
the lawsuits have begun. Paul's with us again this morning.
This was no great surprise, Paul.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
No good.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
We're still ahead of the times on the on the
Saturday Mornings ZB show, aren't we, Jack. This is where
you come for breaking news and real analysis. But yeah,
we called it right because, as we've both experienced, you
look at these new iPhones and you say it's supposed
to do all this really amazing stuff, and you hear Apple,
and I think as well, Apple over the years has

(00:55):
built up such a reputation of trust that when they
say that they're going to do something as this lawsuit
kind of mentions, you really do expect.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
That they're going to come through on it. Right. You
have a belief.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
That the thing that you thought you were going to
be able to do, you're going to be able to do.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
And well you kind of can't.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
And so yeah, there's been a lawsuit over here taken
up by a law firm where they're really trying to
start a class action lawsuit on behalf of all of
the iPhone sixteen owners. And really at the center of
it is one ad in particular that shows Bella Ramsey.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Now you may know the Ramsey name. Gordon Ramsey's daughter.
She's in Game of Thrones and The Last of Us.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
She's in one of these new ads that was showing
Siri basically being able to pull up the details of
someone based on you know, very personal information that was in.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Your messages and in your calendar.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
Siri can't do that, and it's probably going to be
quite some time before Siri can do that. And that
is now this one ad is now the basis of
this lawsuit in federal court.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's amazing because Apple is just like I think we
said last week, it's not like Apple to kind of,
i mean to advertise technology that they don't actually have,
you know, to kind of oversell armer. Yeah, really rare
for them.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
You know, they usually they usually will talk about things
and then actually it's like it always says that in
the next release of iOS, you'll be able to do this,
or when you get the next night Phone, you'll be
able to do something. And I honestly think that that
that kind of precedent that they have and that trust
they have will probably be a really big part of
the suit.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, I think so too. Hey, TikTok has removed its
chubby filter.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
I know this is you know, usually these filters are fun, right,
These filters are usually you you know, they put some
silly makeup on you or some glam or they have
some vintage effects, or they put you in the ocean.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
They're kind of fun.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
This filter here was well, a little interesting jacket added
a few pounds to you. So you put the filter
on of you, or you uploaded a photo, so I
guess it could be your view or a friend or
an enemy, I guess, And you know, it kind of
led you into believing what maybe you could look like
if you had, you know, a few too many snacks.

(03:05):
And while people started posting there before and after pictures,
and I think this is where it got me.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
People started posting that They're like, I.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
Actually don't look too bad chubby, you know, And then
they didn't go down well with some Well, TikTok has
now said they have removed the filter. It was actually
created by one of their sister companies as part of
the kind of bike dance whole family.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
But they've removed this filter. TikTok's not going to be
recommending these videos in the algorithm, and the chubby filter
is no more.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, and finally, Paul Google says news is basically worthless
to their ad business.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
I know, did did you get a slight dagger to
the heart?

Speaker 2 (03:42):
The other's only about the three thousandth this year.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
I don't worry. You probably get just yelled at you
in the streets. No.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
So Google ran an experiment where in eight European countries
they took away all of the news results for one
percent of the audience. They did it for two and
a half months and the result was basically they saw
no impact at all. In fact, their press release was
I think kind of brutal said that could not quote
be statistically distinguished from zero ouch. So in the EU,

(04:14):
Google has to pay news publishers to use snippets of
their content, and when they go into the next negotiation,
I mean they're kind of going to have the other hand,
because if they're saying that their ad business the thing
that basically powers Google search, right for Google anyway, right,
that's the thing that runs the whole business selling the
ads at the top.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
If you can turn off all of the.

Speaker 4 (04:36):
News content and it doesn't change anything to do with
the Google Ads business, it doesn't look good for those publishers.
And Google even said in their press release that, hey,
publishers they think may be slightly overvaluing the you know,
their product.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Of course, this is just one metric.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
You could have a very good argument that hey, maybe
for the Google brand, or maybe for the good of society,
maybe the news should probably still be in.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Those search results.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
But hey, when it comes to the actual business metrics, statistically,
they couldn't distinguish it from zero.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Oh yeah, that's brutal, it is. Thanks Paul Teas for
Paul Steinhouse Stean.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks d B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.