Episode 172 – Paying online mods, The Un-Hackable Russia, and Yandex

Topic 1:

Is there value in paying these volunteers, or more value in not paying them?

Online moderators’ contributions to open forum platform Reddit are estimated to be worth 3.4 million dollars in a given year. That accounts to roughly 3% of revenue Reddit generated through ads alone in 2019. In other words, you can argue there is room in the budget to compensate online moderators. 

But contributing to a community/activity you are passionate drives people to participate beyond a monetary value so is it really necessary? 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/technology/online-moderators-compensation.html

 

Topic 2: 

Russia has always been recognized as a haven for hackers. 

It is not recognized as such because of its superior encryption, ingenius malware, or anything like that; Rather, it reigns number one by fear alone. 

It has been instilled in us that Russia is the big bad of the cyberspace.

The drive to fight back has always been overshadowed by the fear that doing so might open up a Pandora’s box of Russian retaliation. 

However, as hacktivists and criminals become major players in the conflict in Ukraine, we might be able to gain some leverage in the near future. 

It would mean taking a huge step towards chaos but sometimes things need to get worse in order to get better. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/01/russia-cyber-attacks-hacking/

 

Topic 3:

Yandex, the perfect Russian tech company, falls on hard times.

Yandex is what can be recognized as the “Google of Russia.” They own 60% of search in Russia…Plus taxi apps, emails, robot food delivery, and more.

But now, the Kremlin has forced them to filter all of its content and create and distribute pro-government media. This has led to a loss of over 2,500 employees and a devastating blow to the company’s reputation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/world/europe/ukraine-russia-yandex-google.html

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