Perhaps the AI found itself turned on by the sexy onions

October 10, 2020 5:00 AM

Sometimes an onion is just an onion.
posted by clawsoon (31 comments total)

👁️💦
posted by condour75 at 5:07 AM on October 10, 2020

What a coincidence, I have some of these in my kitchen right now (NSFF).
posted by adept256 at 6:08 AM on October 10, 2020 [9 favorites]

Maybe the AI knows something we don't. Maybe the onion rimming parties I've been attending need to be paused.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:08 AM on October 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

At least onion rimming is likely to be COVID safe. Social distancing is built in to the party! Note: do not rim the same onion as someone else.
posted by hippybear at 7:10 AM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've been looking at the wrong seed catalogs, mine just have seeds.
posted by winesong at 7:24 AM on October 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

Ah! So that's what "Les Oignons" was about.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:10 AM on October 10, 2020

That's yer Rule 34 right there.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:47 AM on October 10, 2020

That’s understandable. Lots of Facebook users have mistaken Onion posts for the real thing.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:53 AM on October 10, 2020 [31 favorites]

Agh, how could the story not include the image in question?
posted by Mitheral at 9:12 AM on October 10, 2020

Agh, how could the story not include the image in question?

It does, about halfway down.

The photo doesn't look very sexy to me, but then I'm not an AI.
posted by clawsoon at 9:16 AM on October 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

Peeled back: 'Overtly sexual' onions get Facebook reprieve

I first heard about this on CBC radio a couple of days ago, so at an orthographic level I was thinking it was "Gays Seed Company," but turns out it's "Gaze."

"We got notified the other day that it's an 'overtly sexual image' that they had to ban from the site," McLean said Monday. "I guess something about the two round shapes there could be misconstrued as boobs or something, nude in some way."

Was not thinking boobs.

Here's a story with a picture of the specific image in question.

Maybe it was the "Walla Walla Sweet" that pushed things over the edge.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:26 AM on October 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

Now, in respect to the original post, I can sort of see how an AI might see two heaving breasts being held up by a dress (front of the basket holding up two onions) but where it goes off the fucking rails is when the woman has more boobs on top of her boobs.

Either that or this AI was based on my dream-state as a 14 year old after watching Total Recall.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:28 AM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

So Facebook's AI is more diligent at weeding out racy onions (and prosecuting for nudity) than it is at squelching hate speech, doxing, nazi fuckwits and Qanon.

Good to know.
posted by chavenet at 9:59 AM on October 10, 2020 [9 favorites]

It does, about halfway down.

Ah, it's a deep link to facebook and my anti-tracker blocked it.
posted by Mitheral at 10:06 AM on October 10, 2020 [5 favorites]

So Facebook's AI is more diligent at weeding out racy onions (and prosecuting for nudity) than it is at squelching hate speech, doxing, nazi fuckwits and Qanon.

This is America, where it's totally fine for young teens to watch hyper-realistic gore horror porn where everybody is killing each other, but if there's even a fucking whiff of female nudity you better get ready to have your door beaten down by the religious right, who equates female nudity with female pleasure, and to them female pleasure is a big fat NO.
posted by deadaluspark at 10:38 AM on October 10, 2020 [6 favorites]

Mefi sockpuppet name: Overtly Sexual Onions
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 10:59 AM on October 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

Peel my love like an onion.
posted by aspersioncast at 11:20 AM on October 10, 2020

if there's even a fucking whiff of female nudity you better get ready to have your door beaten down by the religious right

Which is particularly hilarious in light of the apparently inexhaustible gobs of full-on gonzo porn available to most North Americans in less time than it took to write this sentence.
posted by aspersioncast at 11:23 AM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

It’s like one of those magic eye pictures where you stare and stare and then suddenly... you see it.
posted by sjswitzer at 11:58 AM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

The Facebook block message says, "Listings may not position products or services in a sexually suggestive manner." So the block could've still been upheld if the seller had intended to make the onions look sexy?
posted by clawsoon at 12:41 PM on October 10, 2020

but if there's even a fucking whiff of female nudity you better get ready to have your door beaten down by the religious right, who equates female nudity with female pleasure, and to them female pleasure is a big fat NO.

And don't even think about full frontal male nudity. Like, the ratio to female to male nudity in film and even photographic exhibits is a zillion to one or something, my math is fuzzy. Never show the peen, apparently.
posted by hippybear at 12:46 PM on October 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

Looks down at shopping basket full of sexy onions and ugly fruit.
Is this what I've been doing wrong all this time?
posted by bartleby at 12:57 PM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

I’m betting this will show up on next week’s “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me”
posted by TedW at 2:38 PM on October 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

The Walla Walla onions, "an older onion variety", had recently brought back in stock by customer request, and are now selling fast due to their newfound notoriety, he said.

I have Washington State feelings about this. You don’t need gimmicks to sell a sweet onion.
posted by clew at 4:12 PM on October 10, 2020 [3 favorites]

OK, now I'm even more disturbed.
posted by flabdablet at 6:07 AM on October 11, 2020

"But did you ever . . . fuck an onion?"
posted by aspersioncast at 9:25 AM on October 11, 2020

and are now selling fast due to their newfound notoriety, he said.

I see what they did there (hint: the store is in downtown St. John's, Newfoundland. Don't think I ever stepped foot inside, but I can remember my older sister coming back from Gaze numerous times with aquatic plants and fish for our aquarium. They're out of the pet supplies business now, but good on 'em for not being overwhelmed by the big-box stores, and even moving into a new larger nearby location a year and a half ago.)
posted by hangashore at 9:26 AM on October 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I’m betting this will show up on next week’s “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me”

Well, I was wrong. It turned up on this week’s show.
posted by TedW at 12:05 PM on October 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

There are no sweet onions like Walla Walla sweet on lions, no matter how they ...er, reproduce, or whatever.

Vidalias are barely adequate substitutes.
posted by lhauser at 7:13 PM on October 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Maui onions are very nice too but I’ve never compared them head to head with Walla Walla.
posted by sjswitzer at 8:07 PM on October 11, 2020

I don’t think sweet onions keep at all well, so I suspect they don’t travel well, so each sweet onion may justly reign in its own valley.
posted by clew at 10:54 PM on October 11, 2020 [2 favorites]