A hairdryer was allegedly used to rig Polymarket bets on the weather at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, according to a report by The Telegraph . French authorities note that the official temperature readings at the airport spiked twice in the past month, reaching levels much higher than expected. On both occasions, gamblers on Polymarket appear to have walked away with thousands upon thousands of dollars by betting on those temperature fluctuations. The gambling site relies on readings from temperature sensors, and the one at Charles de Gaulle airport is on a public road. This makes it easy to access. The operating theory is that someone snuck in and used a battery-powered hairdryer to bring the recorded temperature up well beyond the actual heat outside. Meanwhile, the Polymarket page indicated less than a one percent chance of the airport exceeding a particular temperature. Successful bets on these fluctuations netted an unknown user around $34,000. holy fuck, a hair dryer at a Paris airport broke Polymarket weather markets & made someone $34,000 richer - polymarket was settling Paris temperature bets on a single Météo France sensor sitting near the Charles de Gaulle runway perimeter - basically unguarded - the guy bought… pic.twitter.com/ona2hP3oZc — @aaronjmars (@aaronjmars) April 22, 2026 “In view of physical findings on one of our instruments and the analysis of sensor data, Météo-France was indeed led to file a complaint for alteration of the operation of an automated data processing system with the Air Transport Gendarmerie Brigade of Roissy,” a spokesperson for France's official weather agency said. There is no indication that Polymarket forced anyone to return their winnings, but the temperature sensor has been moved to a new location. The site is still running bets on the daily temperature in and around Paris. It sucks that someone potentially tricked a temperature sensor with a hairdryer to scam actual gamblers out of potential winnings. However, this sort of thing should be expected when betting money on real-world scenarios like this. If something can be rigged, and there's money to be made, it'll get rigged. Humans are gonna human. This does, however, shine a light on the types of bets that should be allowed on sites like Polymarket and Kalshi. Polymarket, for instance, hosts numerous bets on the outcome of wars , whether or not countries will receive nuclear weapons and potential prison sentences , among many other sensitive topics. What happens when someone uses something much more dangerous than a hairdryer to change the outcome of something for financial gain? This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/someone-allegedly-used-a-hairdryer-to-rig-polymarket-weather-bets-155312411.html?src=rss
The Turkish parliament has voted through a bill that would ban all children under the age of 15 from using social media. As part of the legislation, social media platforms would be required to enforce age-verification measures on their apps, provide parental control tools, and react more quickly to harmful content being posted. As reported by The Associated Press , lawmakers have passed the bill in the wake of two deadly school shootings in Turkey, after which police arrested 162 people accused of sharing footage of the tragedies online. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now has 15 days to accept the bill in order for it to become law, after reportedly saying social media platforms had become "cesspools" in a televised address to the nation. As well as the major social media platforms, AP reports that online gaming companies would also have to implement their own restrictions on minors, with potential punishments including bandwidth reductions and financial penalties. This isn’t the first time Turkey has locked horns with social media and online gaming platforms. Instagram has been blocked in the country before, back in 2024, relating to a dispute over the posting of Hamas-related content. Access was restored around a week later, but in the same time period Turkey also banned Roblox over reports of inappropriate sexual content accused of being explorative to children. At the time, a Turkish official also named the "promotion of homosexuality" as one reason for the ban. Turkey has also temporarily banned Twitter (now called X) on several occasions, most recently after 2023’s devastating earthquakes, though it was not clear at the time why the government may have moved to block the social media platform. The country’s lawmakers moving to ban under-15s from accessing social media is part of an emerging trend in Europe and across the globe. The likes of Greece and Austria have recently introduced similar legislation of their own, following Australia becoming the first country in the world to ban children under 16 from social media last year. The UK has since considered bringing in tighter restrictions too. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/turkey-wants-to-ban-social-media-for-kids-under-15-143053462.html?src=rss
