A congressman photographed looking at scantily clad women on a plane claims Elon Musk’s social media site X served up the images as he scrolled his feed.
Brad Sherman, 71, was snapped ogling the photos on his tablet while bored on a flight between DC and his home state of California last week.
‘Why did California Congressman Brad Sherman feel it was appropriate to look at porn on his iPad during a flight today?’ an X user who posted the photos wrote.
‘His district deserves better representation than this!!’
X is one of very few social media platforms that allows users to post pornography, but none of the photos depicted any nudity.
Sherman blamed X algorithm – and by extension its owner Musk – for shoving the lingerie models in his face as he browsed.
‘This was nothing more than scrolling through X – and unfortunately Elon Musk has ruined the Twitter algorithm to give people content that they don’t ask for or subscribe to,’ he said in a statement.
Pictures on social media revealed that congressman Brad Sherman had been caught looking ‘at porn’ mid-flight
The 71-year-old California Democrat blamed his mid-flight gaffe on social media algorithms
Sherman said he had not been viewing pornographic content and insisted he was on the ‘For you’ page on X
Sherman claimed the suggestive photos were on his ‘for you’ page, which shows content delivered by algorithm instead of accounts you subscribe to.
He is correct that this feature now shows ‘content [users] didn’t ask for’ but, the algorithm is tuned to give you what it thinks you want. The more you interact with particular kinds of content, the more of that it puts on your feed.
Sherman in another interview elaborated on his statement to insist he was merely scrolling on his tablet and not purposefully viewing the content.
‘If I see a picture of a woman, might I look at it longer than a sunset? Yeah,’ he told Punchbowl News.
‘I must’ve looked at more than 1000 posts.
‘Is it pornography? I don’t think Elon Musk thinks so.’
However, Sherman also recognized he should not have been looking at the risqué photos.
‘Is it appropriate? No,’ he added.
Sherman, pictured alongside former US president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris, has been in Congress since 1997
Sherman, pictured next to California governor Gavin Newsom, represents the west coast state’s 32nd congressional district
The California congressman’s behavior even caught the attention of Donald Trump’s inner circle, and were reposted by his son Donald Jr.
Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace compared the photos of Sherman to how she was accused of berating law enforcement at a South Carolina Airport as they escorted her to her gate last month.
She posted on X: ‘I don’t want to hear a single peep from anyone in/around Congress, or the media, [about] how I stroll through an airport ever again…’
In response to being called out for his inappropriate behavior, Sherman called for the Trump administration to ‘release the Epstein Files.’
‘Simply put – Donald Trump Jr, the White House and MAGA are trying to divert from releasing the Epstein files,’ he said.
‘Don Jr and the White House press office are pushing this story when there is no story. Shame on Don Jr, shame on the White House, shame on MAGA. They ought to join the bipartisan demands to release the Epstein files – now.’
