[kaibiprime]

Wouldn't a metallic pin increase risk for shorts inside the port?

I personally use the toothpick end of flossing picks. They're usually very thin and the plastic material doesn't cause any hard abrasion.

[f_devd]

Normally that's correct except that the USB-C pinout is well designed to not put GND and VBUS near each other so it's pretty difficult to actually short anything. Still it's better to use something non-conductive.