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November 9, 2020: The election and Big Tech

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Tonight: The election and Big Tech

Pointers:

• Dear Joe Biden: Don't Listen to Silicon Valley (Roger McNamee, past Techtonic guest, in Wired, July 9, 2020): "The problems with Silicon Valley's largest companies, especially the internet platforms, are not occasional or inadvertent. They are systemic and intentional. Hate speech, disinformation, and conspiracy theories are the meticulously engineered lubricants that maximize revenue for Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. The decline of journalism has happened because Google and Facebook found a way to insert themselves between media companies and their audience, and then to siphon off advertising dollars. The explosion and influence of extremist groups on Facebook are not an accident; they are the result of conscious choices. Facebook's internal research revealed that its own recommendations account for 64 percent of registrations to Facebook Groups focused on extremist topics. Rather than change policy, management did nothing. The convenience of Amazon Prime, Uber, and Postmates (now an Uber subsidiary) results in part from exploitative labor practices. The flaws of new products like facial recognition and AI are not inevitable; they result from a culture that ships products at the earliest possible moment, without consideration for the impact on the people who use or are affected by them. These examples just scratch the surface."

• Jason Kint, today, Nov 9: "Including Google's Eric Schmidt in a position of influence is prob the most likely stumble this administration could have walking in the door. It would be turning over a critical set of issues in our economy and information sphere to financial influence." Kint attaches this FT excerpt:

• Below, from Seth MacFarlane, Nov 3, 2020:



• Kamala Harris and the ascent of Silicon Valley (my column from Aug 13, 2020): "What are the chances that someone funded by Facebook, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Kleiner, Apple, Twitter, Netflix and Zynga money is going to call for any restructuring of their business models?"

• Does Section 230's Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior? (U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Oct 28, 2020), featuring Jack Dorsey, Sundar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg. Quoted: Senator Gary Peters of Michigan with Mark Zuckerberg, who claims not to know anything about a blockbuster WSJ article on the racist group-recommendation algorithm (which I write about here).

• Jack Dorsey Hires Homeless Man Off Streets Of San Francisco To Fill In For Him At Hearings (Babylon Bee, Oct 28, 2020)

• Along with our outtro comes this closing piece of advice:



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