Inside Amazon’s Fake Review Economy

amazon
Jason Tate

Nicole Nguyen, writing at BuzzFeed:

The systems that create fraudulent reviews are a complicated web of subreddits, invite-only Slack channels, private Discord servers, and closed Facebook groups, but the incentives are simple: Being a five-star product is crucial to selling inventory at scale in Amazon’s intensely competitive marketplace — so crucial that merchants are willing to pay thousands of people to review their products positively.

Ticketmaster Invests in Facial-Recognition Technology

Ticketmaster
Jason Tate

Jacob Kastrenakes, writing at The Verge:

Someday in the not-so-distant future, you might be able to walk into a concert venue without waiting in line for your ticket to be scanned — because instead, the venue will automatically scan and identify your face.

That’s the experience that Live Nation and Ticketmaster suggested they’ll try to develop last week, when announcing an investment in Blink Identity.

All the technology we grew up watching and reading in dystopian movies and novels is basically coming to pass. Should I be worried?

Hayley Williams, Laura Jane Grace, and More Donate Gear for Auction

Hayley Williams
Jason Tate

Hayley Williams, Laura Jane Grace, and a bunch of other musicians have donated some gear to the Girls Rock Camp Alliance auction:

Today, we here at Reverb are excited to announce our partnership with a slew of exceptional artists and musicians for an auction launching this Thursday, May 10 in support of the Girls Rock Camp Alliance (GRCA)—a nonprofit supporting more than 100 summer camp and music education programs around the world for female, transgender, and gender non-conforming youth.