Tech Tok: Hackers join app developers against Reddit

A ransomware group named BlackCat stole over 80GB of Reddit data back in February and is now threatening the platform

Trouble with the content rating and discussion platform Reddit only seems to be mounting. After the blackout orchestrated by the developers, now a bunch of hackers have targeted the platform.

Reddit’s hardships began earlier this month when they announced updates on their application programming interface (API) policy. The platform said that it will start charging third-party companies like Apollo and others that want to access its content.

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Many enjoy browsing Reddit’s third-party apps and the latest changes have irked these developers who in many ways are sustaining the platform. Retaliating, thousands of developers protested by making popular subreddits private and calling it Reddit Blackout.

Joining this online protest, a ransomware group named BlackCat stole over 80GB of Reddit data back in February and is now threatening the platform. They are demanding Reddit pay a $4.5 million ransom and take back its new API policy.

On the other hand, Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit stated that the platform was never designed to support third-party apps. He said that the company won’t be making any changes to the latest policy.

It remains to be seen who wins this online war – a coalition of international hackers with app developers or the world’s biggest discussion forum.

Twitter video app for smart TVs

Social media platform Twitter may soon come up with an app for smart TVs. In response to a tweet suggesting that a Twitter video app is needed, the owner of the company, Elon Musk replied “It’s coming.”

He said in a tweet on Saturday, that this move would be in line with the company’s new plans to focus on growing video content on the platform.

Recently, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson launched a new show called “Tucker on Twitter.” Twitter envisions that it could sell ads and sponsorships alongside videos from Carlson and other content creators, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Meta unveils Voicebox

Adding to its bandwagon of artificial intelligence tools, Meta unveiled a generative AI models for speech-related tasks.

Called Voicebox, a super tool that can help with audio editing, sampling, and styling, it can aid content creators, assist the visually impaired in hearing written messages, and also enable people to speak in any foreign language.

This tool creates outputs in a variety of styles from scratch. While most other AIs are great at producing pictures from text prompts, Voicebox can produce high-quality audio clips. As of now, it can process speech in six different languages and perform tasks such as noise removal, content editing, diverse sample generation, and style conversion.

Is Realme stealing your data?

Following a Twitter user’s claim that Realme is collecting private information like call logs, SMS, location info, and other data; Minister of State for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar assured that an investigation will be conducted.

It is common knowledge that smartphones often have access to user data to provide enhanced services. But according to reports, what Realme is doing is tracking data without the user’s consent as their Enhanced Intelligent Services feature which collects information is activated by default.