Crypto News: Toxic content

Hi there, this is Alex Barinka in Los Angeles. Potentially deadly content on TikTok looks the same as everything else. But first...

Today's must-reads:

• Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX is nearing a deal to buy BlockFi in a firesale
• Video-game technology maker Unity Software is cutting more than 200 jobs
• Inside the biggest bitcoin hack in history

It's all but a guarantee on social media: You have a problem, someone has a hack. The formula has spurred millions of viral videos: Don't know how to wear the latest trend? Here's five ways in 15 seconds! Asparagus won't stay fresh in the fridge? Cup of water hack!

These fixes, useful for fashion and food, are more complicated when applied to healthcare. Alternative-medicine influencers have long offered up "at-home" treatments, touting remedies that are purported to solve everything from headaches to cancer. Rarely are those recipes backed by organizations like the US Food and Drug Administration. And sometimes they are deemed ineffective or extremely harmful by medical professionals.

But the unblinking optimism of these social media solutions has the potential to get much darker in a post-Roe world. It's been just a week since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and medical professionals told Bloomberg they've seen an uptick in the number of social media posts promoting various herbs, tonics and other dangerous substitutes for the abortion care that many states suddenly lost.

Do-it-yourself abortion remedies, often desperate and sometimes deadly, have come to be symbolized in pro-choice rallies by women carrying hangers. Now, posts on social media platforms claim that toxic herbs will halt pregnancies, even as medical professionals warn they could have fatal effects. Some of these posts have racked up hundreds of thousands of views, according to reports.

Watching abortion advice videos is jarring. In some cases, they employ the same tone as the ones that attempt to teach you how to style a midi skirt. The posts fit right in with the rest of your content, wedged between videos of your neighbor's kids and your friend's latest sourdough loaf—making it easier to absorb the ideas without much critical thought.

Online content about at-home substitutes for abortion care could have devastating impacts, emergency physician and medical toxicologist Josh Trebach told Bloomberg News. Certain herbs being pushed online like pennyroyal oil can cause liver failure, seizures and death, he said.

"I worry there's a lot of misinformation out there because it is much, much easier to go to TikTok or Facebook or Twitter than it is to make an appointment with your primary doctor seven weeks from now," Trebach said. And for people seeking out an abortion in states with restrictions, calling a local physician poses more challenges.

Social platforms say they are taking steps to combat this type of misinformation. But excising harmful information online is difficult. We saw it during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic with posts touting a range of untested cures. During the recent baby formula shortage, there was a proliferation of DIY infant formula recipes going viral online, prompting the FDA and American Academy of Pediatrics to issue warnings that they don't provide the correct nutrients or enough of them. This past week, the New York Attorney General called on Google to correct search results that direct individuals seeking abortions to "dangerous and misleading anti-abortion clinics" in the state, according to a release.

TikTok deleted many of the posts flagged by my colleagues at Bloomberg, and Twitter says the company is elevating "credible, reliable information." But that may not be enough to stop retrograde herbal remedies from slipping into users' feeds, right alongside the fashion and food hacks. —Alex Barinka

One-time pandemic darling Zoom is changing its strategy, and acting like the past two years never happened. The videoconferencing giant is now focusing on the enterprise market, which had been the plan before its star turn during lockdowns.