“If you don’t like platforms wielding such tremendous power, then the solution is democratic governance, not more self-governance. It is only by doing the tough work of governance, not just banning Trump’s tweets, that we will begin to address the harms so clearly on display at the Capitol.”
Taylor Owen on the deplatforming of US President Donald Trump
Big Tech Podcast Explores Political and Societal Impacts of Technology
Naomi Klein, Joan Donovan, Cory Doctorow and Steven Croft were just some of the illustrious guests on CIGI’s Big Tech podcast, which was nominated for the Canadian Podcast Awards this year. Hosted by CIGI Senior Fellow Taylor Owen, episodes in the third season dug deep into issues such as how digital platforms enabled the Capitol Hill riot, keeping children safe on the internet, digital surveillance and tech behind the “Great Firewall” in China, “deplatforming” President Trump and the toll of artificial intelligence (AI) on people and our planet.
“Increasingly during the pandemic, we’ve seen tech companies use the pandemic as a back door to privatize untouchable public goods like education,” said Klein. “We either throw up our hands and say there is no commons…or we start talking about some pretty radical ideas about nationalizing some of this infrastructure or treating it as a commons.”