Hashtag Trending – Political ads on Facebook, TikTok vulnerability, awful photoshop job goes viral

Facebook is sticking to its advertising policy despite it not making much sense, a recently published report highlights a serious TikTok vulnerability that was addressed last December, and someone’s attempt to skip work with a fake photo goes viral.

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Facebook is defending its policy of allowing political ads on its platform, which may include lies, and is instead giving users the option to stop seeing political ads in their feeds. The social media giant also says that it won’t stop the tactic of “micro-targeting” for political ads, something critics have said is often used to spread misinformation. This comes shortly after Facebook’s announcement in the run-up to the U.S. elections that it would ban “deepfake” videos that have been manipulated with artificial intelligence from both its platform and Instagram. Many LinkedIn users have chimed in, saying while it’s nice to have fewer lies show up on their feeds, it’s not enough to prevent the spread of misinformation to other users.

Trending on Reddit is an Israeli cybersecurity firm’s recent report that found serious vulnerabilities in popular video app TikTok, that unchecked, could have allowed hackers to manipulate user data, expose personal information and send users malicious links. The vulnerabilities were discovered in November last year and fixed in December. TikTok is already in hot water, especially in the U.S. because of concerns over its ties to China. However, TikTok still boasts 400 million active users, putting it ahead of LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

And lastly, Twitter is having a great time dissecting someone’s latest attempt to skip work by sending their boss a photo of a “flat tire”. The vehicle’s tire included a laughably bad photoshopped image of a small screw puncturing the rubber. Upon closer examination, it looks like the tire is fake too. Amazing.

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.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada
Alex Coop
Alex Coophttp://www.itwc.ca
Former Editorial Director for IT World Canada and its sister publications.

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