Sign up for free to listen for longer

Get unlimited radio, access to exclusive and original podcasts and non-stop music stations.

Control the way you listen to your favourite music, podcasts and radio.

Already have an account?

Log in

Sign up for free to listen for longer

Get unlimited radio, access to exclusive and original podcasts and non-stop music stations.

Control the way you listen to your favourite music, podcasts and radio.

Already have an account?

Log in

How 2020 changed Facebook and Twitter for the better | Ezra Klein Show shorts

How 2020 changed Facebook and Twitter for the better | Ezra Klein Show shorts

Vox Quick Hits
10 min
19 Nov 20
Mark as played
Share

About the episode

I’ve been fascinated by the sharp change in how the tech platforms — particularly the big social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and to some degree, YouTube — are acting since the 2020 election. It’s become routine to see President Donald Trump’s posts tagged as misinformation or worse. Facebook is limiting the reach of hyper-viral stories it can’t verify, Twitter is trying to guard against becoming a dumping ground for foreign actors trying to launder stolen secrets, and conservatives are abandoning both platforms en masse, hoping to find more congenial terrain on newcomers like Parler.  So is Big Tech finally doing its job, and taking some responsibility for its role in our democracy? Are they overreaching, and becoming the biased censors so many feared? Are they simply so big that anything they do is in some way the wrong choice, and antitrust is the only solution? Casey Newton has spent the past decade covering Silicon Valley for The Verge, CNET, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Today, he writes Platformer, a daily blog and newsletter focused primarily on the relationship between the big tech platforms and democracy. He’s my go-to for questions like these, and so I went to him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices