A Toronto customer took telecom giant Bell to court and won, a new report warns cities that Amazon HQ2 could raise rent prices, and Facebook is pushing out its downvote button to more of its users.
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From Reddit – A judge of a Toronto small claims court has ruled that Bell can’t promise a price and then change it. The ruling comes after a Bell customer in Toronto took the telecom giant to small claims court after he was promised a monthly price for 24 months in a verbal contract, but then sent in an email a contract that said that prices were subject to change and that Bell was planning to increase its price for internet service by $5 two months later. This has been an ongoing complaint for not just Bell customers, but Rogers and Telus customers as well, and Canadian contract lawyers told the CBC that this decision could lead to a much grander class action suit. According to one lawyer, consumers should feel very confident, and this argument could be used to win one big class action suit against the telecoms.
From LinkedIn – A new report from real estate site Zillow warns that cities up for Amazon’s HQ2 should start thinking about potential hikes in rent immediately if they get chosen. For instance, Nashville rental rates could grow four times as fast, and Denver’s could rise three times the rate of inflation. While not all cities on the shortlist will experience a hike in rent prices – cities like Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Toronto will be minimally affected – each of these cities will have the advantage of knowing that this campus that will supposedly introduce 50,000 jobs is coming in advance. So with smart city planning, these cities can prepare and build new housing areas in advance to help prevent these spikes in rent.
And from Reddit – In an effort to clean up its comment sections, Facebook is borrowing from Reddit and testing out new upvote and downvote buttons for comments. The goal here is to allow Facebook users to upvote positive or helpful comments, while downvoting comments that may be hurtful or disrespectful. Facebook originally tested the features as a trial in the U.S., but Facebook users around the world are now starting to get a taste of this new feature.
That’s what’s trending this week. Hashtag Trending is produced by the ITWC Podcast Network. If you enjoy Hashtag Trending, please be sure to give us a rating and a review on Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever else you get your podcasts from.
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