Files from Jori Negin-Shecter
Donald Trump is launching a social media platform, Canadians may be living “The American Dream,” and fake vaccine cards are circulating on social media.
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It’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Friday, October 22, and I’m your host, Samira Balsara.
BREAKING: Former President Donald Trump has announced the Trump Media & Technology Group, merging with the Digital World Acquisition Corp. to become a publicly listed company, launching a new social media platform called Truth Social in early 2022. https://t.co/q2HvEwEaCV pic.twitter.com/N29Jnb4NRs
— Newsmax (@newsmax) October 21, 2021
Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced via a press release today that he would be launching his own social media platform dubbed TRUTH social. As detailed in an article from BBC News, Trump says the platform would “stand up to the tyranny of big tech,” who Trump has had no shortage of clashes with over the past year. Trump was famously banned across several social media platforms back in January in the wake of the events of January 6th, and had been hinting at creating his own platform for an extended period following his ban. In the same press release, Trump also announced that his group, Trump Media and Technology Group, intended to create a video-on-demand service that would feature “non-woke” programming, as stated in the release.
According to an article from The Globe and Mail, Canadians may be living “The American Dream” promised by our neighbours to the south, as economic and environmental policy continues to be prioritized north of the border. The article cites Canada’s lower poverty rate, as well as openness to immigration, as reasons that Canada is the far more viable and intriguing option to those seeking out opportunity. The Globe and Mail also cites Canada’s efforts to diversify its economy, particularly in regards to the technology and innovation sectors, with people from across the globe including India, Eastern Europe, and even the United States immigrating to Canada.
Finally, according to a study from the Coalition for a Safer Web (CSW), bad actors are turning to Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram, to purchase fake vaccination cards. According to the study, hundreds of posts were found advertising the fake cards, with “lot and store numbers that sellers claim have a better chance to deceive authorities,” according to an article from PRNewswire.com. Perhaps even more troubling, was that after these fake cards were reported to their respective websites, the posts allegedly remained up for several weeks after their existence was flagged. The report from CSW follows multiple other reports dating back to last March that found fake vaccines, masks of questionable quality, and illicit COVID-19 commerce all present at an alarming rate across the platforms.
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 Samira Balsara