YouTube Shorts is making a change to address the rising problems with spam links. The links appearing in the Shorts comments section, descriptions, and the live stream won’t work after August 31. This new policy intends to be a preventative step that makes it difficult for spammers to scam people using links.

YouTube promises to roll out a new, safer method for creators to direct Shorts viewers to other YouTube content. The new update will be live by the end of September.

What does it mean to Creators?

YouTube’s Future Plans & Release date

Criticism by YouTubers

Conclusion

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New YouTube Malware Stealing Information: PennyWise 

Security researchers have recently discovered that cybercriminals are misusing YouTube to spread potent malware that is capable of stealing all kinds of information from your device. After various cases of malware fraud were discovered on WhatsApp and Google Play Store, new ones have popped up on YouTube. This malware steals passwords, Telegram messages, and even takes screenshots. If you are scrolling down YouTube videos, you need to be cautious as some of these videos can hack into your devices!  

Hackers are using YouTube as a medium to spread a new stealer malware, called ‘PennyWise’, intending to learn all possible information about you. PennyWise has been discovered by cyber researchers of the Cyble Research Labs who uncovered over 80 videos on YouTube with the potential to endanger users. The malware focuses on stealing sensitive browser data as well as cryptocurrency wallets from the victim’s device.     

How did researchers find PennyWise? 

Cybersecurity Researchers discovered these videos with only a few views belonging to the same YouTube account. The majority of these videos demonstrate how a piece of bitcoin mining software works in an attempt to entice users to download the software via a shared downloadable link in the video description. To make it more legitimate, the file is password-protected and includes a link to VirusTotal, which confirms the file as “clean” and safe to use. Surprisingly, it also displays a warning that some antivirus software may generate a false positive alert.  

When a user downloads this file, the PennyWise malware is installed in the system. PennyWise, according to cybersecurity experts, is capable of stealing almost any type of data! It can obtain the path for a variety of browsers, including more than 30 Chrome-based browsers, 5 Mozilla-based browsers, Opera, and Microsoft Edge.   

What is PennyWise capable of? 

PennyWise is capable of stealing data ranging from system information to login credentials. Cookies, encryption keys, master passwords, Discord tokens, and Telegram sessions are all at risk. It can also take screenshots while scanning the device for potential cryptocurrency wallets or cryptocurrency-related browser add-ons. When the hackers have finished collecting all of the data, it can be compressed into a single file.  

Surprisingly, the malware attempts to identify the victim’s country, and if the country belongs to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, or Kazakhstan, all operations are halted. According to reports, it is possible because hackers are attempting to avoid detection by law enforcement agencies in these countries for unknown reasons.  

How can I stay safe from PennyWise? 

Here are a few ways you can protect yourself from the malicious PennyWise: 

• • • If you are interested in bitcoin, you should be cautious and not click on any link you find on the internet. You should never download pirated software from unknown websites. 
    • You must have a strong password and keep it updated at regular intervals to keep it safe from such malicious activity. 
    • To improve security, you must implement multi-factor authentication. 
    • Never, ever open unknown links or email authenticity. 

Read Also : ‘Lockdown Mode’, Apple’s Latest Security Tool for High-profile Users Introducing

Anwesha Mishra

Anwesha has been a creative writer for a while. Currently, on her pursuit of tech writing, she is diving into the realms of technology to produce better content on the forever-changing world of technology. In her free time, you’ll find her humming tunes of her favourite shows or reading a book.

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New way of dealing with YouTube spam 

Spamming is not new to social media platforms, especially platforms like Facebook and YouTube. Lately, this issue of spam has gotten much worse than before due to easier and wider access to digitalization. In order to fight spam, the popular video-sharing and streaming platform has come up with a new feature that will make it difficult for spammers to succeed with their YouTube spam and hoax agenda.  

Starting on July 29, YouTube channels will no longer be able to conceal their subscriber counts. Hiding the number of subscribers is an easy way for spam accounts to hide what they really have going on in order to impersonate accounts and channels that are established and massive followings. The Google-owned video platform said that is a tactic commonly used by those pretending to be behind larger and more established channels.  

In a statement, YouTube acknowledged that, “some creators prefer to hide their subs count as they try to grow,” but the company has deemed the potentially controversial measure necessary to reduce the prevalence of impersonators. The change is sure to upset some people, since, really, YouTube is removing an option here rather than adding something, but the company is making the move nonetheless.  

However, the platform is also putting new special character restrictions on channel names—another measure designed to make it harder for impersonators to hide in plain sight. From now on, some special characters will not be allowed any more, but it sounds like you might still be able to toss a weird character in if it makes the cut. Basically, YouTube doesn’t want people spelling things out in all special characters à la ‘¥ouⓉube’ — a common spam tactic.  

Often times, spam accounts or people running fake accounts copy the name of whoever they are pretending to be. But to keep their identity protected, they subtly change certain characters. It is difficult to detect a fake account or a spam account at first glance because they might look like the real thing, and on a scale that is not enough to lure unwitting users to a fake channel or scam links or whatever they are trying to push.    

‘Increase Strictness’ and ‘Identity Abuse’ 

Additionally, YouTube is also announcing that its ‘increase strictness’ comment moderation setting will be rolling out to all creators. The option, which can be toggled on in the community settings menu, will filter out comments more aggressively than the default setting, potentially eliminating more of what YouTube calls ‘identity abuse’ along with other spammy stuff clogging up your corner of the platform.  

In recent months, creators have been calling attention to a frustrating surge in YouTube spam. In April 2022, consumer tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee posted a video expressing his frustration with spam. He remarked how, for months, he has been dealing with the subject and it has only gotten ‘next-level out of control’ in his channel’s comment section. He further tweeted about YouTube’s ‘increase strictness’ comment moderation tool at the time, and now that previously experimental feature will be available to everyone tired of slogging through spam.  

Read Also : If you’re banned on WhatsApp, we (might) have a solution for you!

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Now, according to the reports, the social media giant has lived up to its words to finally make the much-demanded feature available. However, this feature is not for everyone and is available for a limited period only. You can avail of this feature if you are a YouTube Premium subscriber.

If you want to know the steps, just follow the guide below:  

Step 1: Make sure you are a YouTube Premium subscriber

Step 2: Open www.youtube.com/new on your web browser

Step 3: Scroll down to where “Picture-in-picture on iOS” option and click “Try it out”

Step 4: Sign in to your account and you are all done.

Once you have completed all these steps, started a YouTube video and navigate away from the app by swiping up or using the home button, and picture-in-picture will start.   

If you lock your phone while watching PiP, the app will pause the video you are watching. But you can resume it via the lock screen media controls.  

9to5Google notes that some users have reported that they were able to enable this feature on iPhones and iPads, however, its access was a little unpredictable. (Apparently uninstalling and reinstalling the app might help)  

YouTube has stated that the feature is “Available until 31 Oct.” But we are hoping that YouTube will be bringing this feature to all users as promised in June and not just paid ones.  

Also Read: YouTube Shifts to New Model and Might Not Remaining Creators Space

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But the company says that instead of the creator’s space YouTube will shift to a hybrid model. Youtube’s new model will combine pop-up locations along with virtual events.  

Though the pandemic pushed YouTube towards a virtual model, the shift from permanent Spaces has been underway.   

Back in 2019, according to TubeFilter report the company was moving towards a reliance on temporary pop-up locations. They wanted to give more flexibility to serve creators. At that time, the company said that they would shut its permanent Spaces in Toronto and Mumbai. They will serve the locations with pop-ups instead.  

To date, YouTube’s pop-up locations and virtual events have reached thousands of creators, according to the company. They have also said that last year it ran over a thousand virtual events attended by people across 145 countries. Since 2016, 45 pop-up events have reached across more than 20 cities to over 15,000 creators.  

“We truly believe this flexible new strategy will allow us to reach more regions,” YouTube says in a blog post.   

In 2021, the company plans to run the #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund as a part of a multi-week virtual program. The company will continue to invest in its NextUp program for emerging creators. They will also go live and recorded online workshops.   

YouTube says “Pop-up events and experiences will return once it’s safe to run in-person events again.”  

The post YouTube Shifts to New Model and Might Not Remaining Creators Space appeared first on Tech Research Online.

Amnesty International has accused them and many others of censoring dissent at the behest of the authorities in Vietnam. In a 78-page long report, Amnesty International has reported how tech giants are operating in repressive countries. Also, they have accused Facebook and YouTube of blocking content that is deemed critical of the authorities.

The report proposed by Amnesty International titled ‘Let us Breathe!’ Censorship and criminalization of online expression in Viet Nam’ which is based on dozens of interviews with human rights activists. The report even includes their former prisoners of conscience, journalists, lawyers, and writers.

In the report, it is also stated that the country is holding as many as 170 people for criticizing authorities, of whom 69 are held for their social media activity.

Read News: Google Transforms its Google Pay App to Personal Finance Assistant

“In the last decade, the right to freedom of expression flourished on Facebook and YouTube in Viet Nam. More recently, however, authorities began focusing on peaceful online expression as an existential threat to the regime. Today these platforms have become hunting grounds for censors, military cyber-troops, and state-sponsored trolls.

The platforms themselves are not merely letting it happen – they’re increasingly complicit,” said Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns.

In April, Facebook has announced that they had agreed to the request from authorities to increase its compliance to remove content deemed “anti-national”.

In response, the social media giant justified that its decision to agree with the authorities as they were deliberately slowing the traffic down in Vietnam to convey a warning.

Meanwhile, YouTube is popularly known to be the favorite of the authorities due to its high rate of compliance with requests from local law bodies.

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