Top Viral Tech News April 2018
Contents
We tracked the five top viral tech news shared in April. Here is what we found:
For innovators and executives, understanding the most prominent industry-related news is crucial to making key decisions. Here at Turbine Labs, it is our job to deliver quality insights that generate change and influence strategy for these brand leaders.
While our JetStream Briefing shares daily tech and media coverage, this blog series compiles the top viral tech news so you can stay current with leading trends and ideas that are most important.
- March 2018: Most Viral Tech News March 2018
- February 2018: 10 Most Viral News Sources
- January 2018: Top 5 Most Viral Stories in January: Tech News
- October 2017: The 10 Most Viral News Outlets
With data breaches and failing technology, April was an interesting month for the industry as headlines continued to spur conversation with these top viral tech news stories:
How the Senate’s tech illiteracy saved Mark Zuckerberg – CNN
Outbound virality: 25K shares
Unless you lived in a remote island in the Pacific this past month, you most likely saw Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg sip his water while he was on trial for the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. As senators probed Zuckerberg about the 87 million Facebook users that had their data breached, many viewers felt as though the Senate had not done their homework. The interaction between Sen. Orrin Hatch from Utah and Zuckerberg proved this point: Hatch: “How do you sustain a business model in which users don’t pay for your service?” Zuckerberg: “Senator, we run ads.”
IRS to delay tax deadline by one day after technology collapse – The Washington Post
Outbound Virality: 21K Shares
While the IRS usually is recognized for its strict deadlines and little compassion for tax evasion, a computer glitch took down its system April 17th as agency officials were unable to process tax returns online. While the issue was more or less kept confidential, they granted an extension to all as acting commissioner David Kautter stated, “This is the busiest tax day of the year, and the IRS apologizes for the inconvenience this system issue caused for taxpayers.”
China engaged in massive theft of US technology, analysts reveal – Fox News
Outbound Virality: 16.3K Shares
China was up to no good as the most populous country in the world deployed spies resembling students and researchers to collect and loot American research and technology advancements from universities. “Essentially, China steals our fundamental research and quickly capitalizes by commercializing the technology,” said oversight subcommittee chairman Ralph Abraham.
Jordan Peele makes Obama call Trump a “complete dipsh*t” in PSA about fake-video technology – A.V. Club
Outbound Virality: 16K Shares
A PSA made by comedian Jordan Peele posing as former President Barack Obama using “deepfake”, an AI advancement that leverages video-rendering software to create video-facsimiles, shows how easy it is to adversely use this kind of technology. Both the video and article go on to explain how it is important that we, as viewers, must not throw trust into the wind as we consume certain content. Fortunately this technology isn’t 100% accurate quite yet, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t progressing.
Early investor in Tesla, Skype and Hotmail says bitcoin will be bigger than all those combined – CNBC
Outbound Virality: 8.3K Shares
Bitcoin, a type of cryptocurrency that is quickly being adopted by consumers, is gaining momentum as venture capitalist Tim Draper believes it will be larger than any of his previous investments combined. “This is bigger than the internet. It’s bigger than the Iron Age, the Renaissance. It’s bigger than the Industrial Revolution,” Draper said. “This affects the entire world and it’s going to be affected in a faster and more prevalent way than you ever imagined.”
From bitcoin conquering all of tech to “deepfake” threatening who we believe, April was quite the month for technology. Stay tuned for next month’s blog post as we share May’s top viral tech news.
