On Friday, footage surfaced showing Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) looking at images of scantily clad women on his iPad during a flight. The images were shared by the social media account Dear White Staffers, which alleged that the content was pornographic in nature.
Dear White Staffers questioned Sherman’s actions, posting: “Why did California Congressman Brad Sherman feel it was appropriate to look at porn on his iPad during a flight today? His district deserves better representation than this!!”
After the images spread online, Sherman addressed the incident through an interview with John Bresnahan of Punchbowl News. He said that the images were not pornographic and explained that they appeared in his Twitter feed under the “For You” section.
“This was on Twitter. These pictures came up on ‘For You,’” Sherman told Bresnahan.
He added: “I must’ve looked at more than 1000 posts. Is it pornography? I don’t think Elon Musk thinks so.”
Sherman denied having any issue with pornography and attributed what happened to X’s algorithms. He also remarked: “If I see a picture of a woman, might I look at it longer than a sunset? Yeah.”
Following Sherman’s statements, several social media users criticized his explanation and suggested that X’s algorithm recommends content based on previous engagement patterns.
