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This is the transcript of a podcast.

CHERKIN: Then I tell parents use that account for yourself for a week or more. Then decide - is this the product or an app that I want my kid using?

DOUCLEFF: She tried this herself with Snapchat.

CHERKIN: I pretended to be 15. I didn't even like anything. I just went to the discover feed where it, like, pushes you content based on your age usually.

DOUCLEFF: Immediately, she saw sexualized and vulgar content.

I wonder whether 'push' can be used as a ditransitive verb.

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    English doesn't have cases, so "dative verbs" isn't a commonly used term. I think you mean a ditransitive verb, that takes two noun phrases as complements. Verbs like "give" in clauses like "I gave her a gift" are ditransative.
    – James K
    Commented Jul 18, 2023 at 7:51
  • @JamesK Thank you very much.
    – user157844
    Commented Jul 18, 2023 at 8:07

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It is used as a ditransitive verb, which is rather rare. I can find only a few examples of it, and only in the context of drug-pushing

Maybe the guy who tried to push her drugs in the pilot was Amon (source)

Bo-Bo and Bunny look after Mick, lend him money, push him drugs. (Alan Osbourn, The Merthyr Trilogy)

It seems the speaker is (consciously or not) trying to link the way Snapchat's algorithm supplies the user with content to the way a drug dealer supplies addicts.

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  • Thank you very much.
    – user157844
    Commented Jul 18, 2023 at 8:08
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    I think the cited usage is essentially the full OED's definition 12a (transitive) To advance or try to advance or promote; o urge or press the adoption, use, practice, sale, or acceptance of (a thing); to work for the advancement or promotion of (a person). There's no reason to think the writer had drug pushers in mind.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 18, 2023 at 12:57
  • @FumbleFingers Thank you very much.
    – user157844
    Commented Jul 19, 2023 at 0:10

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