Special Takeover: The Debugger podcast has taken over the Ways & Means feed for a three-part series: Defending Democracy (and Us!) from Big Tech. This is episode two of that series.
Very large tech companies fit into a special tech category called “platforms.” Companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Amazon are so big – it’s like they are on a raised on a platform at a country fair, and can be heard all over the fairgrounds. The platform gives them an advantage; because they can be heard by more people, their technology can have a more impactful reach.
These companies have a lot of money, and power. But what if society becomes convinced one of these tools is hurting kids, or failing democracy, or polluting the environment, or stealing? Since they are so big that even fines don’t seem to scare them, what now?
In this episode: we’ll explore what’s been tried to hold tech companies accountable.
The series is produced with support from the Cyber Policy Program at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, and Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics.