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The tech lobby has quietly turned Silicon Valley into the most powerful political operation in America. Pro crypto donors are now responsible for almost half of all corporate donations this election. Elon Musk has gone from an occasional online troll to, as one of our guests calls him, “MAGA's Minister of Propaganda.” And for the first time, the once reliably blue Silicon Valley seems to be shifting to the right. What does all this mean for the upcoming election? To help us better understand this moment, we spoke with three of the most prominent tech writers in the U.S. Charles Duhigg (author of the bestseller Supercommunicators) has a recent piece in the New Yorker called “Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster.” Charlie Warzel is a staff writer at the Atlantic, and Nitasha Tiku is a tech culture reporter at the Washington Post.Mentioned:“Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster” by Charles Duhigg“Big Crypto, Big Spending: Crypto Corporations Spend an Unprecedented $119 Million Influencing Elections” by Rick Claypool via Public Citizen“I'm Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is” by Charlie Warzel“Elon Musk Has Reached a New Low” by Charlie Warzel“The movement to diversify Silicon Valley is crumbling amid attacks on DEI” by Naomi Nix, Cat Zakrzewski and Nitasha Tiku“The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” by Marc Andreessen“Trump Vs. Biden: Tech Policy,” The Ben & Marc Show “The MAGA Aesthetic Is AI Slop” by Charlie WarzelFurther Reading:“Biden's FTC took on big tech, big pharma and more. What antitrust legacy will Biden leave behind?” by Paige Sutherland and Meghna Chakrabarti“Inside the Harris campaign's blitz to win back Silicon Valley” by Cat Zakrzewski, Nitasha Tiku and Elizabeth Dwoskin“The Little Tech Agenda” by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz“Silicon Valley had Harris's back for decades. Will she return the favor?” by Cristiano Lima-Strong and Cat Zakrzewski“SEC's Gensler turns tide against crypto in courts” by Declan Harty“Trump vs. Harris is dividing Silicon Valley into feuding political camps” by Trisha Thadani, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Nitasha Tiku and Gerrit De Vynck“Inside the powerful Peter Thiel network that anointed JD Vance” by Elizabeth Dwoskin, Cat Zakrzewski, Nitasha Tiku and Josh Dawsey
When Zionist Washington Post reporter Elizabeth Dwoskin was planning a hit piece on dissident media outlets like The Grayzone for failing to toe the Israeli narrative line, what she wasn't expecting was a flaying from The Grayzone reporters Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté. But that's just what she got when the two began inquiring why the Post would assign a devout Zionist who promotes Israeli propaganda to cover the conflict with Hamas Guest host Russell Dobular, along with Due Dissidence's Keaton Weiss and Americans' Comedian Kurt Metzger, talk to Blumenthal about the confrontation and how best to respond to corporate media narrative enforcement. Plus segments on unhinged actor Michael Rapaport ranting about the Golden Globes not acknowledging the Israeli hostages and alleged fed Ray Epps receiving a slap on the wrist for egging protesters on to storm the Capitol building on January 6th. Also featuring Mike MacRae and Mischa Paullin! And phone calls from Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer!
SHOW NOTESStanford's Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:Elon Musk has been busy since officially acquiring Twitter.He tweeted that the company will form “a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.” That sparked comparisons to Meta's Oversight Board while others noted that Twitter already has a Trust and Safety Council, but wondered if Musk was aware. He also said no major decisions will be made about reinstating accounts or changing content rules until that body comes together and reiterated in a quote tweet that no changes have been made to Twitter's content moderation policies, likely in response to a reported rise in specific hate speech terms on the platform. - Emma Roth/ The VergeIndian authorities conducted searches at The Wire newsroom and the homes of four editors after a complaint was filed by the ruling party official at the center of reporting that was retracted by the news publication. - ScrollThe Election Integrity Partnership published an analysis of social media platform policies finding that many election rules are vague and lack transparency for how they are enforced. - Election Integrity PartnershipElon Musk tweeted and then deleted a link to a conspiracy theory about the Paul Pelosi attack in reply to a tweet from Hillary Clinton. - Gina Martinez/ CBS News, Kurtis Lee/ The New York Times, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Faiz Siddiqui/ The Washington PostMeta was fined nearly $25 million by Washington state for violating campaign finance disclosure laws and ordered to pay the state's legal fees. - Associated Press, Rebecca Falconer/ Axios, Eli SandersThe Digital Services Act (DSA) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The publication provides the final text of the DSA and begins the countdown for the DSA to enter into force and its application for large and then all covered platforms and search engines. - Luca Bertuzzi/ EuractivJoin the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on Twitter at @evelyndouek and @alexstamos.Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.Like what you heard? Don't forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!
Elon Musk officially takes over Twitter and sources say the billionaire immediately fired three of the company's top executives. Plus, Democrats give their closing message on the economy before the midterms. Elizabeth Dwoskin, Kara Swisher, Mark McKinnon, Peter Baker, Carol Leonnig, Joyce Vance, Brian Schwartz, and Judd Legum join.
A whistleblower says Twitter has "extreme, egregious deficiencies" in its cyber security defense. The complaint says the company is an easy target for hackers and could put users' information at risk. Elizabeth Dwoskin, The Washington Post's Silicon Valley correspondent who helped break the story, joins Stephanie Sy to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
A whistleblower says Twitter has "extreme, egregious deficiencies" in its cyber security defense. The complaint says the company is an easy target for hackers and could put users' information at risk. Elizabeth Dwoskin, The Washington Post's Silicon Valley correspondent who helped break the story, joins Stephanie Sy to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
A whistleblower says Twitter has "extreme, egregious deficiencies" in its cyber security defense. The complaint says the company is an easy target for hackers and could put users' information at risk. Elizabeth Dwoskin, The Washington Post's Silicon Valley correspondent who helped break the story, joins Stephanie Sy to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
A woman with literally no water signs in her astrological chart through Pluto, Claire Rufin, joins me to throw away any chances I had at getting sponsored by BetterHelp! I'm working through a lot of my own understanding on the subjects in this episode, including how a CEO who is presumably worth millions of dollars would take to Reddit to address a complaints lobbied by a Youtuber named Memeology 101. Anyways, this episode is about privacy, employees' rights, and big data. I could not have formed my understanding on these subjects without Cathy O'Neill's Weapons of Math Destruction: AWESOME book! But yeah, I think this is a unique take on BetterHelp. Claire was great on this podcast, @claireannalee is her instagram, I'm cracking open a daiquiri with a paper straw in her honor tonight. Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O'Neill 2016 How Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit behemoth, suddenly imploded, Lance Williams, Reveal News Sep 2016 Are Workplace Personality Tests Fair?, Lauren Weber and Elizabeth Dwoskin, WSJ 2014 When Your Boss Makes You Pay for Being Fat, Leslie Kwoh, WSJ 2013 At Talkspace, Start-Up Culture Collides With Mental Health Concerns, Kashmir Hill and Aaron Krolik, NYT Aug 2020 Eat the Rich episode 90: Online Therapy Platforms https://jezebel.com/the-spooky-loosely-regulated-world-of-online-therapy-1841791137 https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/betterhelp/ https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/4/17932862/betterhelp-app-youtube-sponsorship-controversy-explained https://pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/461812-87#overview https://medium.com/@alonmatas/when-betterhelp-found-itself-in-a-youtube-controversy-3fd472229a4e https://www.betterhelp.com/privacy/ https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Fculture%2Fculture-features%2Fbetterhealth-app-astroworld-travis-scott-1255876%2F https://www.betterhelporg.com/ ("Robust Reporting")
A billionaire, a social media company and a lawsuit — the “epic” saga between Twitter and Elon Musk's acquisition deal. Plus, NASA's James Webb telescope captures galaxies light-years away.Read more:Twitter is officially suing Elon Musk, after the billionaire said he wanted to back out of a deal to buy the social media company. Silicon Valley correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin has for months been following Musk's threats to cancel the purchase, and she explains what this moment means for Twitter.The James Webb Space Telescope captured new images of galaxies that are light-years away. Producer Natalie Bettendorf spoke with Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz who helped create the telescope, about what Webb revealed — and the discoveries yet to come.
Elon Musk and Twitter announced a $44 billion deal Monday for Musk to buy the company and take it over. The deal would be the largest to take a public company private in decades. It's also led to major concerns about how Musk, who is one of the world's richest men, will approach questions of extreme content and free speech. The Washington Post's Elizabeth Dwoskin joins Stephanie Sy to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie speaks with Rohan Talbot about the legal regulation of facial recognition technology during occupations. In 2019, it was revealed that Israel had added facial recognition technologies to the ways that it administers and controls the occupied Palestinian territories. They discuss the international legal implications of these technologies in occupied territories for security and what might it mean to automate an occupation.Rohan Talbot is a researcher and advocate based in London. He currently works for a humanitarian and development charity that operates across the occupied Palestinian territory and Palestinian refugee communities in Lebanon. He recently completed a Masters degree in International Human Rights Law at Oxford University, where his research focused on the human rights implications of the use of advanced surveillance technologies in occupied territory.Further reading:Rohan Talbot, 'Automating occupation: International humanitarian and human rights law implications of the deployment of facial recognition technologies in the occupied Palestinian territory' (2021) 102 International Review of the Red Cross 823.Kelly A. Gates, Our Biometric Future: Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance (2011: NYU Press).Elizabeth Dwoskin, 'Israel escalates surveillance of Palestinians with facial recognition program in West Bank' Washington Post (8 November 2021). Olivia Solon, 'Why did Microsoft fund an Israeli firm that surveils West Bank Palestinians?', NBC News (28 October 2019) 7amleh, 'Position Paper: Facial Recognition Technology & Palestinian Digital Rights' (21 May 2020).Sophia Goodfriend, 'The Expansion of Digital Surveillance in Jerusalem and Impact on Palestinians Rights' (7amleh, 2021) Amnesty's ‘Ban the Scan' campaign
Twitter Spaces launched last spring and soon attracted anti-vaxxers, white supremacists, and ISIS recruiters. The company did little to curb hate speech and even helped the content go viral in some cases, according to the Washington Post's Elizabeth Dwoskin. The Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was just practice, and Trump's GOP is better equipped to undermine the next election, says the Atlantic's Barton Gellman. At Michelin-starred restaurant Bros in Italy, food writer Geraldine DeRuiter was served foam, “frozen air,” and meat-infused molecules. She says the meal has changed her view of fine dining. On Tuesday, Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry broke the record for the number of three-pointers made by any player.
Do Climate Summits Like COP26 Really Matter? The summit was seen as one of the most important international climate negotiations in recent history. But how effective are these kinds of summits? And do the outcomes even matter? The Takeaway talks about that and more with Dr. Michael E. Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Pennsylvania State University and author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back our Planet. Israeli Military Surveillance Program Targets And Monitors Palestinians Using Facial Recognition Technology An Israeli surveillance program, rolled out over the past two years, uses facial recognition technology to monitor and surveil the Palestinian population. To discuss the surveillance program, implications to Palestinian society and what the future of surveillance technology could look like in other parts of the world, we spoke with The Washington Post's Silicon Valley Correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin and Yousef Munayyer, nonresident senior fellow at Arab Center in DC. Aging While Queer: Aging with HIV In this segment, we talk to Tez Anderson, a long-term survivor of HIV, activist and founder of the first and largest group in the world focused on long-term HIV survivors and older adults aging with HIV, Let's Kick ASS (Aids Survivor Syndrome). For transcripts, see individual segment pages.
Do Climate Summits Like COP26 Really Matter? The summit was seen as one of the most important international climate negotiations in recent history. But how effective are these kinds of summits? And do the outcomes even matter? The Takeaway talks about that and more with Dr. Michael E. Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Pennsylvania State University and author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back our Planet. Israeli Military Surveillance Program Targets And Monitors Palestinians Using Facial Recognition Technology An Israeli surveillance program, rolled out over the past two years, uses facial recognition technology to monitor and surveil the Palestinian population. To discuss the surveillance program, implications to Palestinian society and what the future of surveillance technology could look like in other parts of the world, we spoke with The Washington Post's Silicon Valley Correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin and Yousef Munayyer, nonresident senior fellow at Arab Center in DC. Aging While Queer: Aging with HIV In this segment, we talk to Tez Anderson, a long-term survivor of HIV, activist and founder of the first and largest group in the world focused on long-term HIV survivors and older adults aging with HIV, Let's Kick ASS (Aids Survivor Syndrome). For transcripts, see individual segment pages.
We speak with journalist and author Celeste Headlee about her new book "Speaking of Race: Why Everybody Needs to Talk About Racism—and How to Do It." And, Facebook has announced that it will shut down its facial recognition program for photo tagging but hasn't ruled out the technology completely. Elizabeth Dwoskin of The Washington Post explains more about the move.
Jason Grissom, a professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, talks about his research into the inequities of gifted and talented programs. Plus, Elizabeth Dwoskin of The Washington Post and Sheera Frenkel of The New York Times dive into what the Facebook Papers reveal about the company and how the social media platform works.
Guests: Elana Schor, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Scott MacFarlane, Elizabeth Dwoskin, David DayenTonight: A congressman goes from battling the mob to apologizing for it with a new defense of Ashli Babbitt. Then, more fallout from the Facebook papers: Why Mark Zuckerberg killed Spanish-language voter resource tools on WhatsApp. And as the Build Back Better negotiations reach end stages, why paid parental leave is no-brainer that even Joe Manchin can get behind.
A trove of internal documents turned over to the SEC exposes Facebook's role in fomenting the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.Read more:Relief flowed through Facebook in the days after the 2020 presidential election. The company had cracked down on misinformation, foreign interference and hate speech — and employees believed they had largely succeeded in limiting problems that, four years earlier, had brought on perhaps the most serious crisis in Facebook's scandal-plagued history.“It was like we could take a victory lap,” said a former employee. “There was a lot of the feeling of high-fiving in the office.”Many who had worked on the election, exhausted from months of unrelenting toil, took leaves of absence or moved on to other jobs. Facebook rolled back many of the dozens of election-season measures that it had used to suppress hateful, deceptive content. A ban the company had imposed on the original Stop the Steal group stopped short of addressing dozens of look-alikes that popped up in what an internal Facebook after-action report called “coordinated” and “meteoric” growth. Meanwhile, the company's Civic Integrity team was largely disbanded by a management that had grown weary of the team's criticisms of the company, according to former employees.But the high-fives, it soon became clear, were premature.Elizabeth Dwoskin reports on how this gap in the company's protective measures paved the way for rioters to organize the Jan. 6 insurrection using their platform.
Facebook had a bad week. A whistleblower testified before Congress about the danger the company poses, and an outage took down the site and its products for hours. Now, some are rethinking their relationship with Facebook. But can we live without it?Read more:This week on the hill, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told lawmakers that the company systematically and repeatedly prioritized profits over the safety of its users, painting a detailed picture of an organization where hunger to grow governed decisions, with little concern for the impact on society. Plus, a prolonged global outage on Monday knocked out Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for hours, causing inconvenience for some and serious disruptions for others. And now, it seems many are struggling with this tension: We keep hearing over and over again that Facebook is dangerous. But we can't seem to live without it even for a couple of hours. So, what do we do about Facebook?On today's Post Reports, we hear from social media reporter Elizabeth Dwoskin about Facebook's disastrous week and Help Desk reporter Heather Kelly about how to make the platform safer for us and our kids in the absence of regulation.
Facebook it’s as evil as you think. We explored that today with the Washington Post’s tech reporter Elizabeth Dwoskin. She’s been on this beat for a decade and knows all the in and outs. Between market manipulation and monopoly to disinformation and the descent to the bottom of the brain stem, you’ll hear from someone that’s reported on every story and tells us what she thinks is going to happen next. Q has spent decades mastering the ins and outs of CA politics but politics isn’t his sole focus, and he knows it’s not yours either. Political-ish looks outside the realm of politics for insightful and entertaining conversations about history, social justice, pop culture, business, music, and sports, with a dash of politics from time to time. So political...ish.
Facebook’s Oversight Board bars Donald Trump from rejoining the site –– at least for now. How far-right extremists are recruiting new members in chat rooms and on gaming platforms. And, a farewell to empty middle seats on Delta flights.Read more:Facebook’s 20-member Oversight Board has upheld the decision to ban Donald Trump from the social media platform. Silicon Valley correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin discusses what that means for other political leaders online.Far-right groups that blossomed during Trump’s presidency have created enduring communities online by soft-pedaling their political goals and entertaining potential recruits with the tools of pop culture. Marc Fisher reports.For a year, empty middle seats were a silver lining of pandemic air travel — but no more.Vote for Post Reports in the Webby Awards. Our episode "The Life of George Floyd" was nominated in the News & Politics podcast category.
Shannon Pettypiece Senior White House Reporter for NBC News Digital and Eli Stokols White House reporter for the LA Times join Chuck to talk about how Republicans are reckoning with Biden's Washington. Plus, Facebook and Australia have come to an agreement to allow news links to be shared on the social media platform after Australia tried to give news organizations more leverage. Mike Isaac, technology correspondent at the New York Times, and Elizabeth Dwoskin, Silicon Valley Correspondent of the Washington Post, explain.
The Australian Government has re-friended Facebook.The social media site banned any news out of Australia being posted on its platform last week.It followed the proposal of a law which would force Facebook to pay publishers for their content.But the tech giant's now reversed the ban - after the Government agreed to amend the legislation.Washington Post Silicon Valley correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin told Kate Hawkesby it's a win for Facebook."They have enormous amount of power, and in fact, this brazen act, they just cut off news to 17 million people with the flip of a switch."However, she says Facebook received huge backlash from politicians worldwide."This is a company that is facing scrutiny for anti-competitive practices, for privacy, for free speech issues, and they were basically saying 'we don't give a crap'." LISTEN ABOVE
From slowing down misinformation to widening the availability of high-speed internet, President Joe Biden has big plans around tech policy. Reset digs into those proposals and more With the Washington Post’s Elizabeth Dwoskin.
Houston Methodist Hospital has distributed 50,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine. CEO Mark Boom talks about the hospital's rollout. And, the flurry of social media bans against Trump in light of last week's storming of the Capitol has given new urgency to a long-simmering question in tech: Does deplatforming work? Elizabeth Dwoskin of The Washington Post joins us.
President Trump has repeatedly made misleading and false statements about mail-in ballots, the vote-counting process and more. Some of his supporters and members of the conservative media have, too. Social platforms like Twitter and Facebook have tried to limit the spread of disinformation -- but doing so is complicated. William Brangham talks to The Washington Post's Elizabeth Dwoskin. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
President Trump has repeatedly made misleading and false statements about mail-in ballots, the vote-counting process and more. Some of his supporters and members of the conservative media have, too. Social platforms like Twitter and Facebook have tried to limit the spread of disinformation -- but doing so is complicated. William Brangham talks to The Washington Post's Elizabeth Dwoskin. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
President Trump has repeatedly made misleading and false statements about mail-in ballots, the vote-counting process and more. Some of his supporters and members of the conservative media have, too. Social platforms like Twitter and Facebook have tried to limit the spread of disinformation -- but doing so is complicated. William Brangham talks to The Washington Post's Elizabeth Dwoskin. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders
The Senate seats in danger of flipping parties this election. Facebook and Twitters attempt to tackle disinformation ahead of the election. And a Black man speaks out after his image was used for fake pro-Trump Twitter accounts.Read more:Will the Senate flip parties? Reporter Paul Kane explains the Republican seats to watch this election, and the tightrope that senators who are close to the president have to walk to stay in office. Social media companies like Twitter and Facebook are struggling to keep up with the onslaught of disinformation on their sites. Silicon Valley correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin reports on the latest policies intended to mitigate the spread of conspiracy theories and fake news ahead of the election. On Twitter, the sudden appearance and disappearance of fake Black pro-Trump accounts are a stunning example of how far false messages can spread before companies step in and block them. Subscribe to The Washington Post: https://postreports.com/offer
The Interface - Earlier this week, I wrote about how platforms proved they can stop a piece of health-related misinformation in its tracks. Given sufficient atte https://www.getrevue.co/profile/caseynewton/archive/272134 how platforms proved they can stop a piece of health-related misinformation in its tracks“Facebook’s Algorithm: A Major Threat to Public Health,”Elizabeth Dwoskin summed up some of the key findings in the Washington Posta COVID “information center”by Facebook’s countFighting Coronavirus Misinformation and Disinformationactually moved just last week to add a new contextual pop-up when people go to share articles about COVID-19managed to get 20 million views on Facebook in less than a day
Juliet Eilperin explains the secret deal between California and four major automakers. Plus, Elizabeth Dwoskin on the lives of content moderators across the ocean and Jeff Stein on whether we can expect a four-day workweek anytime soon.
Hello! And welcome to another edition of the Inside The Newsroom podcast newsletter. For many of you it'll be the first time receiving one, so I hope you get something out of it and please do message me with any suggestions (contact details at the bottom). Today’s Guest Is…… Sam Biddle, technology reporter at The Intercept. Sam’s worked at a host of outlets including DCist, Newser and Gawker in the past, and reports from the intersection of technological malfeasance. Above is the podcast. And below is more context of everything we talked about with links and a little analysis from yours truly.The Intercept is BornSam joined The Intercept back in 2016, shortly after it was launched in 2014 by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill. It’s funded by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar. You may have heard of Greenwald and Poitras from their time in a hotel room in Hong Kong with Edward Snowden, as part of Poitras’ movie Citizenfour, which documented Snowden’s first contact with journalists about leaked NSA files. The Intercept is one of the most important news outlets in the world, imo, if not only for Greenwald calling out b******t in public as he sees it. Ben Cosman, The AtlanticAre Facebook’s Algorithm Sexist and Racist? Hmm… 🤔Sam delved into a new study showing how Facebook delivers certain adverts to people based on their race and gender, even when advertisers had asked to target a broad audience. Per the researchers: “Critically, we observe significant skew in delivery along gender and racial lines for “real” ads for employment and housing opportunities despite neutral targeting parameters. Our results demonstrate previously unknown mechanisms that can lead to potentially discriminatory ad delivery, even when advertisers set their targeting parameters to be highly inclusive.” Sam Biddle, The InterceptCan We Live Without the ‘Big Five’?Ever wondered what life could be like without Google and Facebook? I know I do all too often. Fortunately for us, Gizmodo journalist Kashmir Hill went all-in and cut the ‘Big Five’ technology companies from her life for an entire week. Personally, I’ve deleted Facebook and Instagram in the past six months and definitely feel better for it. But I’ll admit, I never knew how much of the internet’s infrastructure relied on a handful of companies and, as Kashmir found out, it’s almost impossible to operate as a human without them.Kashmir Hill, GizmodoLike Inside The Newsroom? Do us a solid and tell a friend or colleague who might enjoy it and subscribe.Add Another Zero and Then We’ll TalkThe Washington Post reported last week that Facebook could be fined between $3 billion and $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission, for the company’s mishandling of its users’ data. That could turn out to be more than 100 times larger than the previous largest fine levied by the FTC to a technology company — $22.5 million given to Google in 2012. The problem is, though, Facebook released its latest earnings on Friday, and a $5 billion fine represents just a third of Facebook’s quarterly revenue, something the New York Times described as a “parking ticket”. Facebook’s share price rose 8 percent as a result. How do you penalize a company if a multi-billion dollar fine is good news? Elizabeth Dwoskin and Tony Romm, The Washington PostZuckerberg’s Pivot to PrivacyBack in March, Mark Zuckerberg published the latest of his trivial essays, this time on “a privacy-focused vision for social networking.” The crux of Zuckerberg’s message was that his platform would be moving to complete end-to-end encryption, that “prevents anyone — including us — from seeing what people share.” Now, on the face of it, this appears to be positive. But does this now give Facebook an out from banning the fake content and Russian trolls that have plagued its platform in recent years? Like with most things, there’s be pros and cons. But it’s hard to believe that this move has been made for user protection, especially after leaked emails showed Facebook’s real mission is to make as much money out of its users’ data.Joshua Rothman, The New YorkerThe Third Era of ZuckIt hasn’t been long since rumours of a presidential run circled Zuckerberg, but a tumultuous 24 months later, the only visit to Washington Zuck’s had has been to testify in Congress. According to Tim Hwang, who founded the California Review of Images and Mark Zuckerberg, we’ve entered the “third era of Zuck.” First there was the “plucky in the college dorm room hacker guy”; then came “world leader”; and finally we’ve entered Zuckerberg “in the wilderness.” Bearing in mind that Zuckerberg is still only 34, we’re starting to see through the cracks of what has been an efficient PR machine until now.Julia Carrie Wong, The GuardianJack Dorsey’s PR B******t TourI’ve listened to three podcasts with Jack Dorsey in the past three months and all of them were scarily similar. Even ultra-skeptical podcast hosts such as Joe Rogan struggled to crack Dorsey’s veneer, as Twitter’s co-founder and current CEO told us that he’s working on changes that will mitigate abuse and harassment on the platform, but users wouldn’t notice them. Finally, in the below episode, journalist Tim Pool puts up more of a fight and things get a bit testy. Well worth the listen. Joe Rogan Experience podcast with Jack Dorsey, Vijaya Gadde and Tim PoolRelated Podcasts#31 — Max Read (New York Magazine)#25 — Alex Hern (The Guardian)#24 — Ben Hammersley (Future Predictor)Next up…Later this week we'll have the folks of Hurricane Man on to talk about their new show and what it's like being in the middle of a hurricane.… Last week#35 — Richard Deitsch (The Athletic)Thanks so much for making it all the way to the bottom. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to get a newsletter about a cool news topic in your inbox every time I release a new podcast (1-2 times a week). You can find me on Twitter at @DanielLevitt32 or email me corrections/feedback or even a guest you’d like me to get on the podcast at daniellevitt32@gmail.com. Get on the email list at insidethenewsroom.substack.com
On March 15, New Zealand changed forever when a terrorist decided to kill 50 people at two Mosques in Christchurch. That terrorist also livestreamed his attack and it spread online for hours. A lot has been made about how ineffective social media platforms were in containing the video and its copies. Facebook for its part said it removed 1.5 million videos with images from the shooting. Elizabeth Dwoskin, Silicon Valley correspondent for the Washington Post, joins us for how YouTube handled the situation. They assembled a team of incident commanders and hit the panic button, disabling recent uploads and cutting out human content moderators letting AI take the driver seat. Next, we are learning more about the two Boeing 737 Max jet crashes that have grounded the plane from operating. Increasingly it seems that the culprit was the new MCAS flight control system put in place. Andrew Freedman, science editor at Axios, joins us for the latest. Pilots were not adequately trained on how to operate this new system, and now there are investigations into how the plane itself was certified. It seems time constraints and trying to compete with Airbus pushed the FAA to defer to Boeing in certifying the MCAS system. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The death of Mollie Tibbetts became an immigration talking point, but reporter Terrence McCoy tells the unlikely story of immense kindness in the aftermath of a tragedy. Plus, Elizabeth Dwoskin on how to leave Facebook.
The National Endowment for Democracy is a private foundation - that receives millions of our tax dollars - that pays groups to work to change the governments of other countries. In this episode, hear highlights from a hearing during which the president of this creepy organization and the presidents of two organizations that it funds - which are controlled entirely by members of the Republican and Democratic parties - will give you some insight into what kind of work they are doing manipulating information and interfering in elections in other countries around the world. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD175: State of War CD172: The Illegal Bombing of Syria CD167: Combating Russia NDAA 2018 LIVE CD117: Authorization for Limitless War CD113: CISA is Law CD102: The World Trade Organization: COOL? Main Hearing Hearing: Democracy Promotion in a Challenging World, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, June 14, 2018. Full Hearing Transcript Watch on YouTube Witnesses: Carl Gershman: National Endowment for Democracy: President Daniel Twining: International Republican Institute: President Kenneth Wollack: National Democratic Institute: President Timestamps & Transcripts 15:35 Representative Edward Royce (CA): At home, we must maintain the decades-old bipartisan consensus that democracy is a core element of U.S. foreign policy. That is why it’s important to have the National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republican Institute, and the National Democratic Institute here today, and that’s why it’s important that Congress continues to adequately fund these institutions. 24:30 Representative Edward Royce (CA): I’m pleased to welcome our distinguished guests here on the panel, including Mr. Carl Gershman, who has served as president of the National Endowment for Democracy since its founding in 1984. He’s a long-time friend of this committee. He’s respected worldwide for his work, especially in his efforts to help peaceably end the Cold War and transition countries from behind the Iron Curtain to democracy, and he’s done this through nongovernmental action. Before his time at NED, he was the senior counselor to the United States representative to the United Nations, where he worked on international human rights issues. 25:21 Representative Edward Royce (CA): Mr. Daniel Twining is the president of the International Republican Institute, and previously he served as the counselor and director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He also worked here in Congress. He worked here as a foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain. 25:45 Representative Edward Royce (CA): And we have Mr. Kenneth Wollack. He is president of the National Democratic Institute, and he has co-edited the Middle East Policy Survey and written regularly on foreign affairs for the Los Angeles Times. 27:26 Carl Gershman: I’d call your attention, for example, to some recent events, among them the remarkable democratic transition in Gambia; the fall of the corrupt Zuma government in South Africa; the stunning victory of democracy in Malaysia, and the freeing of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim; the equally stunning triumph of democracy in Armenia; and the successful local elections in Tunisia that are, in my view, a decisive step forward in the Arab world’s first democracy. These are just a few of the examples that I could give of recent democratic advances. There is Slovakia, interesting developments in Ethiopia. Even in a country like Uzbekistan, we can see some glimmerings of some opening. 31:07 Carl Gershman: Other examples include the support that NED has given in Ukraine to the Anti-Corruption Action Center that has tirelessly led the campaign for the establishment of an independent anti-corruption court. And I’m pleased to report that just last week the Ukrainian parliament at long last approved legislation to create such a court. 37:25 Daniel Twining: In Europe, the Kremlin is deploying a sophisticated information-warfare campaign to undermine democratic institutions, erode citizen trust in democracy, and wedge apart the transatlantic alliance. This form of warfare is particularly insidious—this political warfare—because it uses core features of democracy against us—exploiting our free media, manipulating false information, undermining confidence in electoral systems. IRI’s Beacon Project is engaged in a big line of work to leverage our relationships for European political parties and civil-societies groups to track Russian misinformation, including in many local languages, and then to coordinate political responses to that. 31:46 Carl Gershman: The last example is the nonpartisan training conducted by four NGOs in Tunisia of new candidates who participated in last month’s local elections. Of the 235 individuals who were trained, 112 won seats, and 25 were at the heads of their electoral lists. 41:46 Kenneth Wollack: Authoritarian regimes are using digital tools to advance their interests, including electoral espionage and the dissemination of disinformation, to skew electoral outcomes, disrupt democratic discourse, discredit democratic institutions, and fuel ethnic and social divisions. NDI has responded by providing cybersecurity support; assisting efforts of civic, media, and political groups to detect, expose, and combat this information; and conducting new types of public-opinion research to identify populations that are most susceptible to Russian disinformation and develop messages that can build resilience. In cooperation with IRI and NED, NDI is helping to launch a new effort with democracy groups, civil-society organizations, civic-tech partners, political parties, and a global network of four million citizen election monitors to interact more regularly with the technology companies. 44:23 Kenneth Wollack: Ukrainians can point to concrete achievements in recent years. These include the emergence of new political parties that have national reach and are focused on citizens they represent rather than on oligarchs who would finance them. Brought together by NDI in partnership with the European Parliament, party factions in the Rada are overcoming deep fragmentation to agree on procedures that will make it easier to build consensus around reforms. In NDI programs alone, more than 45,000 citizens have engaged directly in the national reform process and reaching more than 1.3 million citizens through the media. 45:05 Kenneth Wollack: Another story of democratic resilience is unfolding in Syria. In northern Syria, citizen groups are prioritizing community needs, and local administrative councils are responding by providing critical services. Fifty NDI governance advisors are working each day in 34 locations to advise citizen groups and administrative councils, and bringing them together to solve problems. 49:19 Carl Gershman: But you’ve got to build a defense against it, and a lot of the groups that we helped stop fake news Ukraine and other groups like that are being able to identify fake information. We have a dialogue—a very ongoing dialogue—with the Internet companies to take down a lot of incitement, a lot of fake news. We’re connecting our grantees with the Internet companies. We have groups like Bellingcat, which is an investigative journalist group. They use open-source information. But they’ve identified the Russian general who provided the missile that shot down the Malaysian airliner. 51:30 Kenneth Wollack: But this a daily fight on the ground. Representative Edward Royce (CA): A social media fight? Wollack: Yes. To give you one example, the Democratic Party of Serbia, two weeks before the local elections, the Russians—presumably the Russians—had hacked their Facebook page, put horrible content on it. The hackers then contacted Facebook, told them to look at the site. Facebook immediately took down the Facebook page. Now, the party didn’t know who to contact. They had no contact with Facebook. They were able to contact us. Our office in Silicon Valley managed to reach the Facebook executives. They immediately took it down. 54:04 Representative Eliot Engel (NY): The budget proposal for fiscal year 2019 requested a $67 million for NED, which is a 60 percent cut from the amount which is $170 million that Congress has appropriated yearly since FY ’16. 54:59 Carl Gershman: I mean, there are, obviously, two fundamental problems with the OMB budget request for fiscal 2019: the amount and separating us from the four institutes. And both of these are devastating. I don’t even want to get into now what we would have to cut. They’re devastating—utterly devastating. It would virtually kill the whole program. 58:22 Daniel Twining: But in Malaysia, IRI’s been working with the opposition there since 2002. Malaysia was essentially a one-party majoritarian state. The ruling party had ruled since 1957. It had gerrymandered all the districts, given itself every advantage. But in this last election a month ago, the opposition won for the first time in 60-something years, and that was an example of playing the long game, right? We, the United States, supported a democratic opposition that is now in charge of this very strategic country right there on the front lines of the South China Sea, right there on the front lines of the Islamic world’s intersection with the rest of Asia, and that’s good for America. 1:09:12 Representative Gregory Meeks (NY): And Mr. Gershman, I’m a former board member at NED, so I’ve seen firsthand the work that you and your dedication and the bipartisan board of NED collectively working together to try to make sure that we have a better world for all of us. 1:12:20 Kenneth Wollack: Our engagement is not to spread falsehoods. It’s not to create fake news. It’s not to try to disrupt the process. It’s not to try to spur conflict in countries. What we’re trying to do is promote the principles, values, processes, and institutions that are enshrined in an intergovernmental organization. And our work is to try to help people engage in the political process. 1:16:34 Representative Dana Rohrabacher (CA):... did we or did we not involve ourselves heavily to undermine the democratically elected government of Yanukovych in Ukraine? And what did it bring us? It brought us turmoil and conflict—that if we’d have waited and let that government be elected, because of its flaws unelected, we would not be in this situation today where the world is more likely to go into conflict because of that. I don’t believe the Russians would’ve invaded Ukraine had we not arrogantly involved ourselves to overthrow that democratically elected government in Ukraine. 1:18:39 Representative Dana Rohrabacher (CA): So, I’ve had my say. I know I’m making everybody mad at me, but I had to say it. 1:25:59 Representative Brad Sherman (CA): And I want to turn our attention to Yerevan and Armenia. NED has allocated $1.3 million last year. Now we’ve seen a real move toward democracy. Are you going to do more, given the fluid situation there? Carl Gershman: Thank you very much for that question, Mr. Sherman. Yes. The answer is yes. Our board, which meets later this week, is making Armenia what we call a country eligible for contingency funds, which are funds set aside for new situations and, obviously, what’s happened in Armenia is very, very new. And we—I think there are several priorities that have to be addressed. There are going to be quick elections that have been called in Armenia, and those elections have to have integrity to them to give legitimacy to the current Pashinyan government. There is a parliament that oversees this, and government officials are really new to the governing game. The system has been controlled by a centralized authority for a number of years and so a lot of training is going to have to be necessary for some of the new government officials. And then, finally, there’s going to be a big information war, the kind of issue raised by Congressman Royce, and it is very essential in this period—and this is what the groups that we help are doing—is to get people reliable and independent information so they don’t make the judgments based upon the disinformation that is going to be promoted by the forces that have just been removed from power. 1:49:40 Representative Karen Bass (CA): Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I want to welcome my colleagues from NED and IRI and NDI. And I’m a member of the NED board, for my colleagues that are here on the committee, and I have to say the work that NED does around the world is really tremendous. 2:07:52 Representative Ted Poe (TX): Globally, what do you personally see is the number-one entity that is a threat to democracy worldwide? Is it China? Is it Russia? Is it North Korea? Is it ISIS? Is it Iran? Pick one. Pick the one you think is the threat. Carl Gershman: China. Rep. Poe: China. Gershman: China. Rep. Poe: Mr. Twining. Daniel Twining: China. Rep. Poe: Mr. Wollack. Kenneth Wollack: Russia. Rep. Poe: Russia. Russia and China. 2:35:00 Carl Gershman And I think it should not be forgotten: NED was created as an independent institution so that even when you have problems, whatever the problems are with the executive branch, our work continues consistently. And I think that was a brilliant idea, and it’s in the National Endowment for Democracy Act adopted by the Congress by Dante Fascell in 1983, and I think it was brilliant to give the NED that kind of independence so that we can go forward, regardless of what the policies of the executive branch are at any particular time. 2:47:46 Carl Gershman: I take pride in the fact that when we make grants to groups abroad, I take pride that it’s with American taxpayer money. We try to protect that money. We try to make sure that every single dollar is spent well. But I take pride in the fact that that’s a demonstration of the support coming from the American people. Sound Clip Sources News Interview: The Rules-Based International Order Created by the U.S. is Being Torn Apart by the U.S., CNN, June 10, 2018. 2:30 Sen. Diane Feinstein I mean we have helped support this whole Democratic Atlantic community and more or less forged it into a single entity. And I’ve been very proud of that as an American. Speech: Madeleine K. Albright Gives Keynote Remarks at 2018 Albright Luncheon, National Democratic Institute, YouTube, May 10, 2018. 10:50 Madeline Albright We are employing every tool at our disposal from the use of focus groups to the collection of more accurate data, to connections made through social media, to the design of election observer missions, to the drafting of model laws, to partnerships with regional bodies and the United Nations, to the mobilization of public opinion from around the equator and from pole to pole. Discussion: Foreign Affairs Issue Launch with Former Vice President Joe Biden, Council on Foreign Affairs, January 23, 2018. Speakers: Joe Biden Richard Haass - President of the Council on Foreign Relations Joe Biden: I’ll give you one concrete example. I was—not I, but it just happened to be that was the assignment I got. I got all the good ones. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team, our leaders to—convincing that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn’t. So they said they had—they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to—or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said—I said, call him. (Laughter.) I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time. Hearing: Facebook, Google and Twitter Executives on Russian Election Interference, House Select Intelligence Committee, C-SPAN, November 1, 2017. Witnesses: Kent Walker Google Senior Vice President & General Counsel Colin Stretch Facebook Vice President & General Counsel Sean Edgett Twitter Acting General Counsel 59:39 Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL): I submit to you that your efforts have to be more than just about finding malicious and deceptive activity, that you have a responsibility—all of you have a responsibility—to make sure that we are not adding to the problem by not being as rigorous and as aggressive as we can in terms of vetting the content and in terms of making sure that we are being really dynamic in doing that. 1:57:39 Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA): RT, Russia Today, on your platform, has 2.2 million subscribers. Fox News, on your platform, has 740,000 subscribers. CNN has 2.3 million subscribers. The Intelligence Community assessment that was made public in January spoke about RT, and it said, “RT conducts strategic messaging for Russian government. It seeks to influence politics and fuel discontent in the United States.” So my question to you is, why have you not shut down RT on YouTube? Hearing: Facebook, Google and Twitter Executives on Russian Disinformation , Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, October 31, 2017. Witnesses Colin Stretch - Facebook Vice President and General Counsel Sean Edgett - Twitter Acting General Counsel Richard Salgado - Google Law Enforcement & Information Security Director 38:25 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI): And I gather that all of your companies have moved beyond any notion that your job is only to provide a platform and whatever goes across it is not your affair. Colin Stretch: Senator, our commitment to addressing this problem is unwavering. We take this very seriously and are committed to investing as necessary to prevent this from happening again. Absolutely. Whitehouse: Mr. Edgett? Sean Edgett: Absolutely agree with Mr. Stretch, and this type of activity just creates not only a bad user experience but distrust for the platform, so we are committed to working every single day to get better at solving this problem. Whitehouse: Mr. Salgado? Richard Salgado: That’s the same for Google. We take this very seriously. We’ve made changes, and we will continue to get better. Whitehouse: And ultimately, you are American companies, and threats to American election security and threats to American peace and order are things that concern you greatly, correct? Stretch: That is certainly correct. Edgett: Agree. Salgado: That’s right. Hearing: Subcommittee Hearing - The Collapse of the Rule of Law in Venezuela, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, July 19, 2017. Witness Luis Almagro Secretary General of the Organization of American States 07:15 Senator Marco Rubio: I also know this, and I do not speak for the president, but I’ve certainly spoken to the president, and I will only reiterate what he has already said, and I’ve been saying this now for a number of days: it is my—I have 100% confidence that if democracy is destroyed once and for all in Venezuela on the 30th in terms of the Maduro regime, the president of the U.S. is prepared to act unilaterally in a significant and swift way. And that is not a threat; that is the reporting of the truth. Confirmation Hearing: Defense Secretary Nominee General James Mattis Says Russia is Trying to Break NATO, US Senate, C-SPAN, January 12, 2017. John McCain: For seven decades, the United States has played a unique role in the world. We’ve not only put America first, but we’ve done so by maintaining and advancing a world order that has expanded security, prosperity, and freedom. This has required our alliances, our trade, our diplomacy, our values, but most of all, our military for when would-be aggressors aspire to threaten world order. Hearing: U.S. Strategy Against ISIS, Senate Armed Services Committee, C-SPAN, December 9, 2015. 2:28:14 Sen. Lindsey Graham Here’s what I’ve done. I make an offer to our president that I believe this war is going to go on for a long time after his presidency; I believe that they’re going to go wherever they can on the planet and that we should stop them wherever necessary; and when it comes to means, we should not limit this commander in chief or any other commander in chief when it comes to means. Speech: Gov. Howard Dean - DemTools 2.0 Launch, NDI's DemTools Launch Event, December 9, 2015. 9:55 Howard Dean I’m incredibly proud to be a member of the board of NDI, which is an incredibly sophisticated organization that does not shrink from bringing democracy to any corner of the Earth, including some we’re not allowed in. We get there anyway. Speech: Sen. Tom Cotton Says US Should Shoot Down Russian Planes Over Syria, YouTube, October 1, 2015. Conference: Is the United States at a Crossroads? Domestic and Global Dimensions, Wilson Center, May 15, 2015. 15:35 Jane Harmon Ukraine. You and I were there together. Madeline lead the delegation - of course she did - for the National Democratic Institute, which she chairs and the International Republican Institute was also there during the first Ukraine election in May of last year. And among other things we met with the presidential candidates including Poroshenko and Tymoshenko and we tooled around in Kiev and I also went to Odessa to see how the voting was going. Speech: Senator Dan Sullivan's Maiden Floor Speech, US Senate, C-SPAN, January 27, 2015. 9:05 Sen. Dan Sullivan If the executive branch continues to dither on America’s economic future, Congress can and should act to expe- dite such projects. That is what we are doing with Keystone, and that is what I will be pressing the Congress to do for Alaska’s and America’s next great en- ergy infrastructure project—the Alas- ka LNG project—which will create thousands of jobs and provide clean and affordable energy to Americans and our allies for decades. Speech: Vice President Joe Biden Opens 2014 NDI Democracy Award Dinner, National Democratic Institute, December 11, 2014. 32:40 Vice President Joe Biden That’s why in Ukraine, working alongside groups like NDI, with your leadership, we’re providing to the Ukrainians, as we had to the Iraqi’s, personnel from each of our departments teaching them how to literally, as I said, write a budget, expertise from our Justice Department, teaching them the tools that are available to ensure that the court systems are free and transparent. We’re helping Ukrainian officials develop laws and regulations that will establish anti-corruption institutions within the government, enable authorities to combat corruption more effectively. Our militaries are working together to improve Ukrainian capacity to provide it’s own defense and a military system that meets the standards of democracies, while providing security assistance to counter Russian aggression. Speech: Thomas A. Daschle's Speech to NDI's 30th Anniversary Dinner, National Democratic Institute, December 16, 2013. 1:30 Tom Daschle Like many of you, - by the mission of NDI. The realization that we have had one focus now for 3 decades. And that focus is very simply to empower people to be able to govern themselves more effectively. That’s what we try to do. Speech: Mitt Romney Foreign Policy Speech, Virginia Military Institute, C-SPAN, October 8, 2012. 17:25 Mitt Romney Fortunately, we had leaders of courage and vision, both Republicans and Democrats, who knew that America had to support friends who shared our values, and prevent today’s crises from becoming tomorrow’s conflicts. Statesmen like Marshall rallied our nation to rise to its responsibilities as the leader of the free world. We helped our friends to build and sustain free societies and free markets. We defended our friends, and ourselves, from our common enemies. We led. We led. News Interview: CIA Admits Orchestrating Syrian Coup of March 1949, BBC Interview, 1967. Additional Reading Article: Who will fix Facebook? by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, November 26, 2018. Article: US, Ukraine in 'close discussion' for new lethal arms by Joe Gould, Defense News, November 18, 2018. Article: Facebook purge: Here is the list of pages deleted by Facebook by Patrick Brown, The Western Journal, October 13, 2018. Biography: George Catlett Marshall, United States General, by Forrest C. Pogue, Encyclopedia Britannica, last updated October 12, 2018. Article: Anti-Media shut down by Facebook and Twitter by Caitlin Johnstone, The Anti-Media, October 11, 2018. Article: Facebook purged over 800 U.S. accounts and pages for pushing politcal spam by Elizabeth Dwoskin and Tony Romm, The Washington Post, October 11, 2018. Article: Facebook tempts political backlash with massive purge of 810 pages and accounts by Rhett Jones, Gizmodo, October 11, 2018. Article: The survivors of the Rohingya Genocide by Jason Motlagh, Rolling Stone, August 9, 2018. Article: John McCain passes the torch at the International Republican Institute by Josh Rogin, The Washington Post, August 3, 2018. Article: Exclusive: IMF backs Ukraine anti-corruption court plan by Marc Jones, Reuters, July 25, 2018. Article: Ukraine anti-corruption court law needs amending - IMF chief by Reuters, June 19, 2018. Article: Independent candidates get most votes in Tunisia's municipal election by Tarek Amara, Reuters, May 8, 2018. Article: Trump is gutting the National Endowment for Democracy, and that's a good thing by Stephen Kinzer, The Boston Globe, March 14, 2018. Article: The Trump administration wants to dismantle Ronald Reagan's 'infrastructure of democracy' by Josh Rogin, The Washington Post, March 4, 2018. Article: House Foreign Affairs Chairman Royce announces retirement by Bridget Bowman, Roll Call, January 8, 2018. Article: What the United States did in Indonesia by Vincent Bevins, The Atlantic, October 20, 2017. Article: Is John McCain's pick to lead the International Republican Institute a strike against Donald Trump? by Timothy J. Burger, Town & Country Magazine, August 10, 2017. Article: Confront authoritarianism by defending democratic values by Carl Gersham , Journal Sentinel Online, October 22, 2016. Article: Russia adds International Republican Institute to growing list of "undesirable organizations", International Republican Institute, August 18, 2016. Article: Bernie Sanders is exactly right: The media is an arm of the ruling class of this country by Brian Hanley, Huffpost, March 28, 2016. Article: Pro-democracy nonprofit is banned in Russia by Ivan Nechepurenko, The New York Times, March 11, 2016. Article: Evil internet bill CISPA is back from the dead, cleverly titled CISA by Kelly Weill, Daily Beast, October 28, 2015. Article: National Endowment for Democracy is first 'undesirable' NGO banned in Russia by Alec Luhn, The Guardian, July 28, 2015. Article: Former Soviet states stand up to Russia. Will the U.S.? by Carl Gershman, The Washington Post, September 26, 2013. Article: Russia wields hard power over Armenia by Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post, September 20, 2013. Article: Covert plan for Panama may be wrong message to send the opposition, The Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1988. Article: U.S. assembled a force in 1964 for possible use in Brazil coup by David Binder, The New York Times Archives, December 30, 1976. Article: Oil discovery in Brazil expected to aid economy, The New York Times Archives, December 9, 1964. Resources About Page: International Monetary Fund, Destruction and Reconstruction (1945-1958), Cooperation and Recovery: The Marshall Plan About Page: German Marshall Fund About Page: National Democratic Institute - Who We Are Archived Form: National Endowment for Democracy For 990 (2002-2015) Board of Directors: International Republican Institute Board of Directors: National Democratic Institute Board of Directors: National Endowment for Democracy Donation Page: National Endowment for Democracy FAQs: International Republican Institute - Who We Are Joint Statement: Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019, p. 406 Project Info: The Beacon Project, International Republican Institute Web Page: Democracy Assistance is Not Election Meddling: Distinguishing Support from Sabotage Letter: United States Senators to Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, December 20, 2017 OpenSecrets: Sen. Dan Sullivan - Alaska Website: Albright Stonebridge Group Website: Bellingcat YouTube Channel: National Democratic Institute Visual Resources Tweet: @ElliotHiggins February 6, 2017 Community Suggestions See more Community Suggestions HERE. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)
Daphne Koller, Co-Founder of Coursera & Former Chief Computing Officer at Calico Labs, and Elizabeth Dwoskin, Silicon Valley Correspondent, Washington Post. From the CB Insights A-ha! Conference, December 13, 2017. For more information visit events.cbinsights.com
9 AM - 1 - Washington Post's Elizabeth Dwoskin on her piece: "Why GoDaddy's decision to delist a neo-Nazi site is such a big deal". 2 - Texts on free speech and the web; Joe is sore from hiking. 3 - The News with Marshall Phillips. 4 - ; Final Thoughts.
9 AM - 1 - Washington Post's Elizabeth Dwoskin on her piece: "Why GoDaddy’s decision to delist a neo-Nazi site is such a big deal". 2 - Texts on free speech and the web; Joe is sore from hiking. 3 - The News with Marshall Phillips. 4 - ; Final Thoughts.
The Green Apple Podcast does weekly "Green Apple Slices", where John Garrett and Rachel Fisch discuss a recent business article related to the Green Apple Message. These shorter segments are released each Monday, so don't miss an episode by subscribing on iTunes or Stitcher. This week, John and Rachel discuss a Washington Post article, "Uber founder Travis Kalanick resigns as CEO amid a shareholder revolt" by Elizabeth Dwoskin.
7 AM - 1 - More Olympics stuff. 2 - Washington Post tech reporter Elizabeth Dwoskin reports on "China is flooding Silicon Valley with cash. Here's what can go wrong". 3 - The News with Marshall Phillips. 4 - JFK yelled at an Air Force General and it was awesome.
9 AM - 1 - The world's most handsome horse; You have to reserve space to have a picnic or play a game at the park in San Francisco. 2 - Washington Post reporter Elizabeth Dwoskin reports on Silicon Valley becoming "radicalized" because some companies are collecting less data. 3 - The News with Marshall Phillips. 4 - Dudes who think they're puppies; Final Thoughts.
Author of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity Interview starts at 28:24 and ends at 42:21 The people who are throwing rocks at the Google bus, they're on to something. The understand something. We should listen. And we can reconfigure, we can optimize, reprogram our economy to help everybody—That's extremely optimistic. I put myself on the hopeful side of the equation right now. Intro Elon Musk unveils Tesla Model 3 (YouTube) - March 31, 2016 News “Amazon Takes on PayPal with New Payments Program” at Fortune - April 4, 2016 “Was Horace and Pete” even Television?” by Ian Crouch at The New Yorker - April 6, 2016 “The next hot job in Silicon Valley is for poets” by Elizabeth Dwoskin at The Washington Post - April 7, 2016 “The inside story of how Amazon created Echo, the next billion-dollar business no one saw coming” by Eugene Kim at Business Insider - April 2, 2016 Jeff Bezos's 2015 Letter to Shareholders (PDF) “Kids Are Practicing Their Reading Skills to Soothe Shy Shelter Dogs” by Anna Gragert at My Modern Met - February 24, 2016 Interview with Douglas Rushkoff at South By Southwest Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity Rushkoff at The Commonwealth Club Content Horace and Pete 10 episodes by Louis C.K., available for purchase Summer Doorways: A Memoir by W. S. Merwin “Alexa, Good Morning!” (Try it yourself.) Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Persepctive" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD. Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!