this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
-16 points (33.3% liked)
Technology
77778 readers
3068 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Story title is clickbait. Read this (short) Wikipedia article to get a quick summary
tl;dr the privacy tool in question mixes cryptocurrency funds with other users funds and hence the US government alleged this was a money laundering service
How is that clickbait, that's exactly what happened?
The title could have given more context. I’m not saying there is anything false or misleading, but as written the title is clickbait since you have to click through to get the key facts such as “Privacy app author convicted of facilitating money laundering for Samouri Wallet”
That's just an excuse, no different from "encryption enables pedophilia" or "hands enable domestic violence". Any tool can be used for illegal activity
Totally agree. And a short summary would go a long way towards making up for the clickbait title
I agree that OP could have post a summary with the video, but clickbait would be "He built a privacy tool, and you won't believe what happened next" or something that doesn't inform of the content of the video. Here it's pretty clear, he built a privacy tool and was arrested for it, all the info is contained in the title.
Click bait is anything that is designed to bait people into clicking a link. Virtually every headline and content title on the internet is click bait to some level.
Malicious click bait is when headlines either outright lie, or imply things that aren't accurate to the content.
The phrasing of this title implies that the creation of a privacy tool is what the creator got arrested for, which is in fact inaccurate to the content, as the reason wasn't creating the tool, the reason was using the tool for money laundering.
So imo it's 100% fair to call this title malicious clickbait
That's LITERALLY what happened.
No, he wasn't accused of using it for money laundering at all, he was actually accused of "conspiracy" to money laundering, claiming that his tool facilitates it, HOWEVER, the prosecution itself knew their charges had absolutely no legal basis and kept it a secret, and when the defense made a motion to dismiss it was denied by the judge without even being heard and the judge gave no reason for it (I guess being on record that the trial is a farce wouldn't look good). In front of an openly hostile judge and a trial that has no intention of following laws, legal costs in the millions piling up, he made a deal for 5 years in prison instead of the 25 they were going to give him.
Again, he wasn't even charged with money laundering, he was arrested for creating a tool that can be used for that. The title is telling the truth - therefore, it's not malicious.
I wouldn't say that not going with an overly descriptive title classifies a bait. You can always add more context but that's what the actual article/video is for, a title is just a brief general description to catch the readers attention. Something like "Interview with Keonne Rodriguez, the founder of Samurai Wallet - a privacy focused bitcoin wallet who's going to prison after being compelled to pleading guilty to running an unlicenced money transmitting business." is very descriptive but doesn't make a great title IMO. It's like saying that "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is a readbait because calling it "A Wizard Orphan and a Magic Rock" would give more context.
They're deliberately withholding basic details of the story so that you have to click the video to get them. That's clickbait.
What details are being withheld? His name, the tool's name, the crime, the sentence? What title would be more informative?
Is that better? Only if you already know what samurai wallet is.
Only if you know who Keonne Rodriguez is and that conspiracy to run an unlicensed money transmission business carries a prison sentence of up to 5 years.
Is this any better? I don't think so. It still doesn't tell you anything about the actual case. You can't condense an hour long video into a single sentence beyond the basic premise, and trying to do so risks glossing over important details and misinforming the viewer. Also, it's not the titles job to give you details about the story, just a basic overview of what the story is about.
...yeah? That's absolutely much more informative
Correct again. I mean it's infinitely better than the current one where it doesn't matter if you do know what Samourai is. Also replace Samourai with "crypto" and baby you got a stew goin'.
You don't have to. You just try to make it as information dense as possible. That's the entire point of a title. It's not supposed to be just a bunch of random filler words. You've just provided several great examples yourself.
If you don't know what samurai wallet is then that title would be less informative. Replacing samurai with crypto can only mislead the reader into thinking that the issue was the crypto and not the privacy part. It also doesn't tell you anything about why he's being imprisoned, while with "He Built a Privacy Tool. Now He’s Going to Prison." it's implied why (because he built a privacy tool).
No.
No.
Neither does the current title. But at least then we know it's something to do with a crypto wallet instead of a "privacy tool".
A "privacy tool" could be an infinite number of things. A "crypto wallet" is super specific.
At this point I think it's pretty clear you're just being disingenuous so I'll bid you good day.
What do you "no"? It absolutely would be. A samurai wallet could be a physical wallet for cash, some hidden blade device, a toy, a regular non privacy centric crypto wallet. For example lets pretend there is this crypto wallet you haven't heard of. Would a title like "Developer of Ninja Pocket goes to prison" be more or less informative to you?
Again, what do you mean "no"? "Developer of crypto wallet imprisoned" tells you nothing about why he was jailed and completely misses the whole point of the story - that he was imprisoned due to the privacy features of the wallet.
Like I said it's implied. The title doesn't need to tell you that it has something to do with a crypto wallet because that's not the important part. The privacy preserving characteristics of it is what matters. His "crime" isn't making a crypto wallet, it's making it private.
IDK how you came to that conclusion but ok.