Entertainment startup Quibi shuts down after blowing through $1.75 billion of funding, Google’s former CEO dunks on social networks, and a security researcher says they guessed President Trump’s Twitter password.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Friday October 23, and I’m your host Alex Coop.
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Entertainment startup, which was known for created short-form, mobile-based streaming content, is shutting down just six months after launching, its founders have confirmed. In an open letter, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman said: “Our failure was not for lack of trying; we’ve considered and exhausted every option available to us.” Quibi by the way, raised over $1.75 billion (USD) in capital ahead of its launch. Startups – sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. [Twitter thread]
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Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt didn’t mince words during an interview this week during a virtual conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal. When asked about the status of social media today, he responded ““The context of social networks serving as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people is not what we intended. Unless the industry gets its act together in a really clever way, there will be regulation.” Google’s YouTube has tried to decrease the spread of misinformation and lies about Covid-19 and U.S. politics over the last year, with mixed results. Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. have also been under fire in recent years for allowing racist and discriminatory messages to spread online.
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And lastly, A Dutch security researcher says he accessed President Trump’s official Twitter account last week by guessing his password: “maga2020!” TechCrunch cited a Dutch news outlet that first reported the story and quoted a Twitter spokesperson saying it’s seen no evidence to corroborate this claim. Trump’s account is said to be locked down with extra protections after he became president, though Twitter has not said publicly what those protections entail.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Baneet Braich, thanks for listening