Capitol attack has been brewing for months on Facebook, Netflix reaches 200 million subscribers, and Wikipedia reaches its billionth edit.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Thursday, January 21 , and I’m your host Baneet Braich.
The English Language Wikipedia Just Had Its Billionth Edit from technology
This week The Tech Transparency Project (TTP) said it’s observed extremist groups use Facebook to organize and incite members. One of the first red flags was the “boogaloo” groups, which were using Facebook to prepare for a second civil war attributed to conspiratorial fears about pandemic lockdowns. Much of the activities like discussion on weapons occurred in private group chats where many could congregate without the public eye. Militant groups had planned to “back up” police on Election Day against supposed Antifa and Black Lives Matter protests. A pro-Trump Facebook group even required incoming members to declare if they would be willing to die for their country in order to join.
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Netflix reaches a new milestone by hitting 200 million subscribers. Popular shows like “Bridgerton” and “The Queen’s Gambit,” have to lead the streaming giant to 200 million subscribers. In 2020, 37 million new subscribers joined Netflix of which 8.5 million were in the last quarter. It’s fair to say it’s got quite the boost from the pandemic as people are confined to their homes. Netflix has also taken on major debt to fuel its expansion which it will no longer need to rely on for its day-to-day operations. [LinkedIn]
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And finally, there’s another milestone worth mentioning. The English Wikipedia had its billionth edit this month. One contributor edited in a hyperlink entry for the album Death Breathing giving the website its billionth edit. Vice is reporting that it’s only the billionth edit if you don’t count the early years of Wikipedia when it had yet to migrate to its own servers and software. Wikipedia continues to rely on volunteers who are editing and debating over the specifics of the information. Each edit is catalogued, tagged, and assigned a unique URL to which the slight edit on the Death Breathing album was the billionth. It continues to be a bit of a shining example of teamwork on a massive scale, as well as trust on the internet – something that’s hard to come by, as we all know.
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!
