Big Tech should reimburse victims of online scams advertised on their platforms, Texas prepares its power grid for winter weather, and is there really a huge demand for metaverse features?
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Thursday, February 3, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Big Tech companies whose platforms host advertisements for scams should reimburse victims, said British lawmakers. This notion is all part of a wider effort to tackle the growing epidemic of online scams. Banks have signed up for a voluntary code to reimburse fraud victims who do enough to protect themselves but there is no sufficient regulation for social media platforms or websites where victims are first lured in. Last week, a report from the FTC revealed that more than 95,000 U.S. consumers had been duped by scams posted on social media.
Big Tech companies around the world are hopping into the metaverse, trying to stay competitive against each other, but is there even a huge demand for meta-related features? An article from Wired claims that “the race is on to sell an amorphous concept that no one really wants them to build.” Over the past few months virtually every tech company has incorporated the metaverse into their business in some way. Facebook, which rebranded to Meta, is working on a supercomputer to power its metaverse while also planning to implement NFT features to its social platforms. Twitter has also made similar moves and…
