Meta is taking legal action to disrupt a large-scale phishing campaign. On Monday, the company filed a federal lawsuit to “uncover the identities” of a group of people that created more than 39,000 websites designed to trick Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users into coughing up their login credentials.
The company says the scammers used relay service Ngrok to redirect people to their websites in a way that allowed them to hide their actions. “This enabled them to conceal the true location of the phishing websites, and the identities of their online hosting providers and the defendants,” Meta said. Starting this past March, the company began working with the relay service to suspend “thousands” of URLs linked to the campaign.
This isn’t the first time has used the threat of legal action to try and stop a phishing campaign. In 2019 and 2020, the company filed lawsuits against OnlineNIC and Namecheap, two domain name registrars that had allowed cybersquatters to claim domains like instagrambusinesshelp.com and whatsappdownload.site. However, the scale of this campaign would appear to dwarf the ones OnlineNIC and Namecheap enabled. When Meta sued the latter company in 2020, it said it had registered 45 domains that were explicitly made to confuse people.
Andrew Walz isn't a real person. A high school student from upstate New York created the fake congressional candidate — complete with website, AI-generated photograph and Twitter account — to test the social media platform's verification system. Ac…
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#YouTubeRewind is back and we’re in love with The Shape of 2017. This year, you gave us your best reggaeton moves, witnessed an eclipse, and fell in love with a pregnant giraffe. There were, of course, difficult moments too, and community and togetherness felt as important as ever.
Our annual mashup brought together more amazing talent than ever before — nearly 300 creators, viral stars, musicians, and surprise guests to be exact! — from over 20 countries, uniting to look back at the biggest, strangest, (squishiest?), and most impactful trends of the year, from silly to solemn, that made pop culture in 2017 what it was. With fidget spinners. Obviously.
Want to be a Rewind expert? Learn about the trends and memes referenced in the video, as well as the creators who pitched in to make it possible, here. And if you already fancy yourself one, test your knowledge with our trivia game.
We’re also revealing 2017’s top trending videos and top music videos, according to time spent watching, sharing, commenting, liking, and more. Some familiar faces are back (Dude Perfect, Bad Lip Reading, James Corden) and some incredible talents in choreography, animation, and live performance join them. This year’s list of top trending videos represents the unbelievable diversity of creativity shared on YouTube every day and around the world.
Collectively, this year’s top 10 trending videos have more than 630 million views and people spent more than a collective 40 million hours watching them. They span from much-loved YouTube creators and traditional media formats to new and innovative voices in art and entertainment.
2017 saw some major new records broken in music, most notably by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s massive global hit. “Despacito” sits at the top of 2017’s top music video list — not just as the most-viewed music video for the year, but as the most viewed YouTube video of all time. A truly global list, this year’s top 10 music videos feature artists from Puerto Rico, Colombia, France, Spain, Cuba, the United States and the U.K, and six of the videos feature Latin artists, up from just one video in 2016.
Head to the YouTube Rewind channel for all your other #YouTubeRewind needs!
Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture & Trends, and the YouTube Rewind team, recently watched “YouTube Rewind: The Shape of 2017 | #YouTubeRewind.”
The hype machine for the LG V30 is gathering pace as we get closer to its launch at IFA 2017 in Berlin on August 31st, with Evan Blass doing what he does and LG posting details about its latest UX 6.0 interface, the floating bar that replaced the V20’s secondary display, as well as the […]
Come comment on this article: Behind-the-scenes video shows how LG created the V30’s wallpaper
2016 was the year of the challenge. You did the running man, you caught ‘em all, you took a moment to stand still, you layered … and layered … and layered. We think it’s fair to say, you crushed it.
Now 2016 is coming to an end, and you know what that means … it’s time for #YouTubeRewind.
This year, more than 200 YouTube stars from 18 countries accepted our Ultimate 2016 Rewind Challenge to pay homage to the biggest videos, memes, channels, songs, and pop culture moments of the year. Keep an eye out for some pretty epic surprise guests. Oh, and we got Major Lazer to help us out with an original mix too.
Feel like a YouTube expert? Take our Rewind quiz to see how many trends and creators you can spot.
It’s also time to announce the top trending videos and music videos from 2016, according to time spent watching, sharing, commenting, liking and more. From Japanese comedy and European soccer to big celebrity moments and some of YouTube’s most popular faces, this year’s top trending videos represent the amazing variety of creativity shared on YouTube every day.
Collectively these 10 videos have 550 million views and were watched for over 25 million hours. The channels behind them collectively have more than 40 million subscribers who tune in regularly to watch the funny, insightful, entertaining things they create.
In music, 2016 seemed to be all about “work,” with Fifth Harmony landing the year’s top music video (and more than a billion views) and Rihanna scoring the biggest audience in the first 24 hours for a YouTube music video in 2016.
For even more end-of-the-year awesomeness, check out the YouTube Rewind channel.
Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture & Trends, and the YouTube Rewind team, recently watched “Ultimate 2016 Rewind Challenge.”
Toilet training cats has become a thing for people who don’t like litter boxes. But what about flushing? This couple figured out a way to automatically flush their toilet after the cat uses it.
The post This couple created an automatic flusher for their toilet-trained cats appeared first on Digital Trends.
In 2015, you introduced the world to the latest dance crazes, opened up discussions about diversity and inclusion, and lip-synced in cars and onstage in front of millions. The trends you participated in and the creativity you shared defined the year on YouTube in a bigger way than ever before.
It’s time to celebrate. More than 150 YouTube creators from all over the world got together to relive not just the best moments of 2015, but also some of the most memorable viral clips from YouTube history (hey, it’s still our 10th birthday year for a few more days yet …). The result: the 2015 installment of our annual Rewind video, featuring everything from YouTube dance prodigies, some of your favorite TV personalities, an epic plastic ball fight, and even a remix from Avicii.
And there’s more. Celebrate some of your favorite moments on YouTube through our official top trending videos of 2015, based on the amount of time people spent watching, sharing, commenting, liking, and more. Topped by one of the year’s biggest dance trends, these videos were watched for over 25 million hours and were created by powerhouse channels with over 40 million subscribers between them.
For the first time, not just one, but four television moments made the top Trending Videos list. Three are late night TV videos of widely popular YouTube trends: the lip sync battle, the in-car singalongs, and the reading of mean tweets. You all love late night TV on YouTube—the time people spent catching up on late-night clips like Corden, Fallon and Kimmel nearly doubled in the last year alone!
When it comes to music, 2015 saw some of our fastest-rising videos of all time. Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” reached over 1 billion views in just 6 months and Adele reached the year’s top 10 in just a few weeks. The top 10 music videos collectively have more than 66 million subscribers, and people spent over 37,000 years playing them in 2015.
…and check out even more top music videos.
And if you love staying on top of the most-anticipated new trailers, hottest music videos, and viral clips from YouTube creators, today we unveil the new YouTube Trending tab. This new tab in your YouTube app delivers the top trending videos directly to your Android, iOS, and desktop device. It’s the best way to catch the videos, creators, and trends that people watch, share, and talk about each and every day. See ’em as they take off and before they appear in YouTube Rewind 2016. And for more Rewind fun, check out the YouTube Rewind channel!
Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture & Trends, and the YouTube Rewind team, recently watched “YouTube Rewind: Now Watch Me 2015 | #YouTubeRewind.”