Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Harvey Weinstein has been indicted on more sexual assault charges, two women are now behind most U.S. Mortgages, and AI companies join a commitment to update the Violence Against Women Act for the 2020s. Have a restful weekend.
– VAWA and AI. Thirty years ago today, the Violence Against Women Act was signed into law. The legislation helped take domestic violence from an issue considered a “private family matter” to a serious crime. Between 1993 and 2022, domestic violence in the U.S. Dropped 67%.
Today, gender-based violence also happens online. As part of a new set of initiatives marking the legislation’s 30th anniversary today, the White House has secured voluntary commitments from major tech companies to prevent online sexual abuse, including nonconsensual AI deepfakes.
Adobe, Anthropic, Cohere, Microsoft, and OpenAI committed to removing nude images from AI training datasets “when appropriate and depending on the purpose of the model.” Those companies also committed to “stress-testing strategies in their development processes” to guard against AI models releasing image-based sexual abuse. Companies also committed to responsibly sourcing their data sets to avoid image-based sexual abuse.
The commitments aim to address not just the creation of this content but also its distribution, or the “nefarious ways…this gets out into the world,” says Jen Klein, the director of the White House Gender Policy Council. Companies are responsible for sticking to these commitments themselves, but the White House says getting these major tech businesses on board at all is a win for survivors of online abuse. “It names it and acknowledges it’s real harm,” Klein says. “It’s not something that happens online and stays online.”
The commitments from major players in AI build on actions from other tech companies, including Square and CashApp, which previously agreed to limit payments for companies producing or distributing abusive sexual images. Google, Meta, and Snap Inc. Have also taken various steps, the White House said, including improving reporting systems and amplifying resources for survivors of abuse.
President Joe Biden was the one who introduced VAWA as a senator 30 years ago. With his time in office coming to a close, this rollout implies he sees reducing violence against women as a signature issue of his career and administration. It’s one that Vice President Kamala Harris would be likely to continue if she wins the White House. “I know that one of the things she would continue to work on is addressing gender-based violence wherever and whenever it occurs,” Klein says.
This week’s announcements also include the funding of a resource center that addresses cybercrimes, including cyberstalking and nonconsensual and unlawful sharing of nude images. Outside of online abuse, there’s additional funding for the Department of Justice for the prevention of gender-based violence. Five federal agencies are committed to working together to meet the housing needs of survivors of domestic abuse, which is a leading cause of homelessness. (Some were initially authorized by the VAWA Reauthorization Act of 2022.)
Biden hosted survivors of domestic abuse at the White House last night to mark the anniversary. He wrote in a Glamour op-ed: “We cannot stop fighting until every woman and girl on this planet is not only free from violence, fear, and abuse—but empowered to reach her full potential.”
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
The Broadsheet is Coins2Day’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- More charges. Harvey Weinstein has been indicted on additional sexual assault charges before his upcoming retrial in New York. The indictment is under seal, and Weinstein’s lawyer said his team doesn’t know its details. Weinstein’s 2020 conviction was overturned in April; his case played a key role in the #MeToo movement. AP
- Fannie and Freddie. Diana Reid is the new CEO of Freddie Mac—which means two women are in control of U.S. Mortgages. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are both now women-led, with CEO Priscilla Almodovar at the head of Fannie Mae. HousingWire
- Successful spacewalk. SpaceX civilian astronauts conducted the first ever commercial spacewalk. Sarah Gillis and Jared Isaacman went outside the capsule while Anna Menon and Scott Poteet stayed in; the air had been removed from the capsule for the mission, so all astronauts wore spacesuits. This marks the first time four astronauts have been exposed to space’s vacuum at once. New York Times
- Big fans. OnlyFans, the subscription-based platform known for adult content and led by CEO Keily Blair, brought in $6.6 billion in revenue for the year, a record high for the company and a 19% increase from the previous year. The company takes 20% of creators’ profits. Subscription numbers also went up 28%, hitting 305 million. Coins2Day
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Sephora North America named Delphine Herve as its next chief financial officer. She is currently SVP of finance, financial planning and analysis.
VIVAZEN, an herbal supplement brand, appointed Natalie Gershon as chief marketing officer. Previously, she was chief growth officer at Three Notch'd Brewing Company.
ON MY RADAR
Meet the VCs who just raised $250 million to back women-led startups Forbes
Elyse Walker talks 25 years of retail success WWD
Chappell Roan is a pop supernova. Nothing about it has been easy Rolling Stone
PARTING WORDS
“[W]hy would they assume I knew less than him about philanthropy when we had been doing it together for almost 25 years?”
— Melinda French Gates on the sexism she experienced doing philanthropic work with former husband Bill Gates
