TecQ: Twitter Fact Checks Trump, Mitron App Controversy and More
TecQ is our weekly roundup of the week’s top technology stories.
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TecQ is our weekly round-up of technology stories.
In A First, Twitter Adds Fact-Check Warning to Trump’s Tweet
Social media platform Twitter added a “Get the facts” link for the first time to a tweet thread on mail-in ballots shared by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, 26 May.
The tweets on mail-in ballots being linked to voter fraud came after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced mail-in voting in California amid coronavirus.
The “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” link is directed to an events page that contains news stories and fact checks about Trump’s unsubstantiated claim. The events page lists the false claims and what is the truth behind them.
Read the full story here.
TikTok’s Desi Version ‘Mitron’ is a Repackage of Pakistan’s TicTic
Mitron App, which has recently been in the news for being downloaded over 5 million times and positioned as India’s answer to Tik Tok, may not have been developed by an Indian from IIT Roorkee.
A detailed analysis and decompiling of the app’s source code by The Quint, has revealed that Mitron, which has ridden high on an anti-China and anti-TikTok sentiment, has, in fact, been rebranded from an app called TicTic, developed by a Pakistan-based company QBoxus.
Read the full story here.
Here’s How PUBG Gamers in India Are Spending Time During Lockdown
The lockdown in India has seen a lot of people getting hooked to playing games to kill time. Not only that, but it has also been a parade for the professional gaming community who create gaming content.
We at The Quint caught up with some of these gamers to find out how the lockdown has been for them and whether they have seen any kind of growth on their channels in terms of engagement and revenue.
Watch the video here.
What’s a Bug Bounty? Decoding Aarogya Setu’s ₹3 Lakh Prize Money
The government on Tuesday, 26 May, released the source code for the Android version of Aarogya Setu App. “Aarogya Setu is now open source,” declared Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog at the press conference.
At the same event, Dr Neeta Verma, Director General, National Informatics Centre, (NIC) announced the app will also contain a bug bounty scheme of up to Rs 3 lakh.
According to the government, alongside the release of the app’s source code, announcing a bug bounty program is an effort towards transparency and indicative of its willingness to engage with security researchers.
This leads to the question: what is bug bounty? Read here to find out.
Shooting The Messenger: India Blocks WeTransfer File-Sharing Site
The Department of Telecommunications has banned popular file-sharing site WeTransfer.com citing public interest and national security, according to a report in The Mumbai Mirror. WeTransfer is a web-based file-transfer site, which makes it convenient to upload files up to 2GB in size and share it for free with others over the internet. A premium version of the service allows one to share larger file sizes.
According to the news report, on 18 May, the telecom department issued a notice to internet service providers (ISPs) across India to ban two specific URLs (links) on WeTransfer and a third notice banning the entire site.
Read here to find out how you can access file-sharing services.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)