Democrat politician caught staring at X-rated photos during flight blames ‘the algorithm’
A Democrat congressman was caught ogling pictures of scantily clad women while travelling on a plane.
Photos of California Rep. Brad Sherman, 71, were shared on X this morning, with a White House figure branding him a ‘gooner’ – American slang for an explicit content addict.
The California politician reportedly denied having a pornography problem, adding: ‘If I see a picture of a woman, might I look at it longer than a sunset? Yeah.’
Sherman has defended himself, saying the photos appeared on the ‘For You’ page of his X feed, in an interview with Punchbowl News.
‘If you have to fly across the country, you look at a lot of stuff on your tablet.’
An X user who first shared the photos of Sherman on the aircraft wrote in a post seen by millions: ‘Why did California Congressman Brad Sherman feel it was appropriate to look at porn on his iPad during a flight today?’
Many have been poking fun at the Democrat lawmaker, who is seen staring mouth agape at what appears to be women wearing underwear and bikinis.
Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, wrote on X: ‘Bruh. What a total gooner.’
One X user wrote: ‘With the screen brightness ALL the way up. Not an ounce of shame.’
Sherman has reportedly blamed the algorithm for his mile-high internet activities.
But people have pointed out that the ‘For You’ page suggests content based on your previous browsing history.
The X Help Centre says: ‘For you serves posts from accounts and Topics you follow as well as recommended posts’.
However, the social media company also says you can be suggested content from accounts you don’t follow.
X might also suggest content based on ‘how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it.’
Some social media users have leapt to the elderly statesman’s defence.
One person wrote: ‘I never look at the “for you” suggestions because they are exactly opposite of my interests.’
Another X user said: ‘I have 100% stuff I hate on my For You page. No one I follow, no one I agree with or like.’
In 2022, former Tory MP Neil Parish resigned from his seat after admitting he had twice watched pornography in the House of Commons.
The representative for the safe seat of Tiverton and Honiton said he’d been searching for tractors but ‘did get into another website that had a very similar name’.
‘I watched it for a bit which I shouldn’t have done,’ he said.
But he later admitted his ‘biggest crime’ was viewing explicit content a second time – on this occasion deliberately and in what he called ‘a moment of madness’ – while waiting to vote.
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