YouTube co-founder criticizes dislike count update, Ontario teen arrested for crypto scam, and Starbucks and Amazon team up for a new cafe.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Friday, November 19th, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
YouTube’s latest update is not going over well with the public and its co-founders. One of its co-founders, Jawed Karim has condemned the platform’s decision to remove public dislike counts. He suggests that this change could lead to YouTube’s decline. Karim says, “The ability to easily and quickly identify bad content is an essential feature of a user-generated content platform.” He says the feature exists because not all user-generated content is good. YouTube made the change last week to limit harassment and promote “respectful interactions” between creators and viewers. But according to The Verge, many argue against the decision saying the dislike count gave the community a way to express its preferences
A teenager from Ontario, Canada has been arrested after allegedly stealing $46 million from one person in a huge cryptocurrency scam in the U.S. Police from the city of Hamilton announced the arrest after a joint investigation with the FBI and the United States Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force. According to police, the victim had been targeted by a SIM swap attack, which is a method of manipulating mobile network carriers so scammers can intercept two-factor authentication requests. The investigation revealed that some of the stolen cryptocurrency was used to purchase an online username that was considered to be rare in the gaming community. This transaction allowed investigators to uncover the account holder of the username. Investigators said this is the largest cryptocurrency scam involving one person in Canadian history.
Starbucks and Amazon are teaming up for a tech-cafe collaboration. Starbucks will open a store in Manhattan that uses Amazon’s cashier-less technology for customers who want to buy coffee or snacks quickly. This collaboration is part of Starbucks’ plan to revamp its location based on consumer needs. The first Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go location opens Thursday in New York City on 59th Street. When customers go into the store, they’ll see a counter to pick up the drinks they pre-ordered using the Starbucks app. According to CNBC, a digital screen will hang above the counter and show which orders are being made by baristas. Starbucks also plans to open at least two more locations with Amazon over the next year.
In an attempt to limit spam, Instagram is now requiring users to take a video selfie to verify their identity. Instagram says that the video selfies users upload for verification checks will never be visible on Instagram and get deleted in 30 days. The social media platform also says that it won’t collect biometric data or use the company’s face recognition technology. Video verification is pretty popular on dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble in efforts to avoid fake accounts or catfishing. As of now, Instagram seems to only require video selfie verification for newly created accounts.