With Files from Tom Li
YouTube’s copy strike report has unveiled some unsavoury statistics, Microsoft seizes servers belonging to hackers, and Amazon has been hit with a widespread outage.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending, it’s Wednesday, December 8, and I’m your host, Jori Negin-Shecter.
YouTube’s Copyright Transparency Report, published yesterday, claimed that 60% of disputes were resolved in favor of the uploader. That’s good news, especially for small content creators. Today, however, further insights from the analysis have come to light, raising more questions about the efficacy of the existing system. The report revealed that there had been 729 million total copyright claims issued in the first half of 2021 alone, 99% of which came from Content ID, YouTube’s automated copyright tool. YouTube maintains that no system is perfect, but if copyright claims were overturned 60 per cent of the time, it raises questions about how reliable things really are.
The ongoing battle against hackers has seen a new development. Microsoft has seized control of servers belonging to a China-based hacking group. Dubbed “Nickle,” the hacking group has been targeting government agencies and human rights organizations in the U.S. and 28 other countries. According to Microsoft, the group is highly sophisticated and has been operating since at least 2016. Now that Microsoft possesses the servers, the company will divert traffic away from them to keep its targets safe.
Finally, Amazon Web Services experienced a massive outage for services hosted in its US East region. The outage began at around 11am Eastern Time, and brought down sections of Amazon’s retail site, Alexa, Prime music, as well as its customers’ services like Tinder and Disney+. At the time of writing, Amazon said that it has identified an error that caused its API to go haywire, and did not specify an estimated time for recovery.
And now for something a little bit different. Tesla’s cars made headlines earlier this year for being able to run games on their touchscreen command console. The feature drew some interest, but also concerns for safety. Those concerns were only further amplified yesterday when one driver noticed that he could play some of the games while the vehicle was in motion. The driver noted that this could be a huge distraction for the driver. Distracted driving causes about 10 percent of traffic deaths, according to a General Motors executive, which makes this inclusion by Tesla particularly alarming. The driver has filed a complaint to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire Newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. If you have a suggestion or tip, please drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thanks for listening, I’m Jori Negin-Shecter.