Stay ConnectedEvery Friday, Slate’s popular daily news podcast What Next brings you TBD, a clear-eyed look into the future. From fake news to fake meat, algorithms to augmented reality, Lizzie O’Leary is your guide to the tech industry and the world it’s creating for us to live in.
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This week, the FTC and more than 40 state attorneys general brought antitrust lawsuits against Facebook. And they’re not pulling their punches. They are calling for Facebook to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp into independent companies. In other words, breakup.
The lawsuits represent some of the most significant antitrust action in the United States in the last 40 years. Will they get results?
Guest:
Tony Romm, tech policy reporter at the Washington Post
Host
Lizzie O’Leary
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Ransomware attacks--when hackers break into digital systems, encrypt files, and demand payment to unlock them, isn’t new. But 2020 has seen an explosion in the frequency of these hacks, which are often targeted at schools and hospitals. Who is behind this recent spate of attacks? And is there anything schools and hospitals can do to protect themselves?
Guests:
Jessica Beyer, teacher at Baltimore County Public Schools
Dave Uberti, cyber security reporter at the Wall Street Journal
Host
Lizzie O’Leary
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When Joe Biden takes office in two months, the federal government will take on a new stance in its fight to contain the coronavirus. The broad strokes of that strategy have been outlined in debates and on campaign websites, but now the real work begins.
Two weeks ago, the president-elect appointed a team of 13 advisers to answer some key questions. How can the new government win the trust of the 73 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump? What would a national mask mandate look like? How will the different vaccines be distributed?
A member of President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 council takes us behind the scenes.
Guest: Celine Gounder, member of the Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board, and host of the American Diagnosis and Epidemic podcasts.
Host
Lizzie O’Leary
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When Barack Obama first won the White House, back in 2008, with Joe Biden as his vice president, the executive branch’s stance towards tech and tech companies was seen as cooperative, progressive, and forward-thinking. This time around, the tech giants can expect a very different relationship.
Will Biden be the president to finally rein in big tech?
Guest: Cecilia Kang, technology reporter at The New York Times
Host
Lizzie O’Leary
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Companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash have always argued that their workers are independent contractors, not employees. This distinction has been crucial in their rise from startups to multi-billion-dollar companies.
On Tuesday, Californians sided with these companies by approving Prop 22, a ballot measure that enshrines workers’ non-employee status. Why did progressive Californians side with Big Tech? And will the rest of the country follow California’s lead?
Guest: Sam Harnett, Tech and Labor reporter at KQED
Host
Lizzie O’Leary
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The 2016 general election changed the way we think about information online and its power to sway results. Four years later, Americans will vote amid a surge of misinformation, collected and distorted to fit political narratives.
What can people and platforms do to protect the truth in this most consequential election?
Guests:
Renee DiResta, Research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory
Justin Hendrix, founder of Tech Policy Press
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It’s been 22 years since the federal government last brought a meaningful legal challenge to a big tech company. Back then, when the Justice Department sued Microsoft, the outcome changed the direction of the company for years to come. Now, the Department of Justice is coming for Google. Can the search giant resist this challenge to its role as the gatekeeper of the internet?
Guest: Tony Romm, technology reporter at the Washington Post
Host
Lizzie O’Leary
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Two years ago, Mark Zuckerberg held up Holocaust denial as an example of the type of speech that would be protected on Facebook. The company wouldn’t take down content simply because it was incorrect. This week, Facebook reversed that stance. Is this decision the first step toward a new way of policing speech on the social network?
Guest: Evelyn Douek, Lecturer at Harvard Law School and affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
Host
Lizzie O’Leary
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Over the last decade, born from the chaos of the 2008 financial crisis, automated tenant screening has grown into a billion-dollar industry. Now, nine out of 10 landlords rely on automated tenant-screening reports, scraped from eviction history, criminal background records, and terror watchlists, to decide if they can trust potential renters. The problem? Often, the reports contain major errors, mistaken identities, and criminal records that are supposed to be expunged. Can these reports really be trusted?
Guest: Lauren Kirchner, investigative reporter at The Markup
Original reporting with Matthew Goldstein, reporter at The New York Times
Host
Celeste Headlee
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Since the beginning of the pandemic, Spanish-speaking voters in Florida have been exposed to a steady uptick in falsities and conspiracy theories. This misinformation is shared in WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups, and YouTube channels, then amplified by enormously popular local radio stations. Now there are signs that the flood of misinformation is having an effect. Groups that voted Democrat in 2016 seem to be leaning to the right.
Will this onslaught of misinformation tilt the Latino vote in Florida? And if so, what does that mean for Florida’s 29 electoral votes?
Guest: Eduardo Gamarra, professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University.
Host
Celeste Headlee
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