Since concluding the last season this past August, a lot has happened in the big tech governance and regulation space. Whistle-blower Frances Haugen and the Facebook Papers shone light on social media’s harmful impacts on our society and reignited the debate over how we regulate platforms. There have been employee-led labour movements at Amazon, Uber and Netflix. And Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his vision for a Metaverse and a new company name, Meta. Join host Taylor Owen in conversation with leading experts as they make sense of how technology is transforming our world.

Big Tech returns on Thursday, November 25, 2021. New episodes will be released weekly, every Thursday morning. Subscribe now on your favourite podcasting application.

Taylor reflects on six themes that emerged this season in conversations about big tech’s transformation of our economy, society and lives.

The US First Amendment protects free speech, but how does that protection extend to online content moderation?

China has created a technology-driven Orwellian surveillance state, where AI pre-crime systems and social credit scores can decide your fate.

Western nations often paint the Chinese tech sector as a threat to freedom, an attack on surveillance and an extension of the state. Big Tech’s guest in this episode, Hong Shen, argues this simplistic framing isn’t quite accurate.

If we consider the history of the US news industry, it’s clear that journalism has never fully achieved its potential. Now that the traditional model is faced with a complete market failure, it’s time to rethink the business of journalism.

The Indian government has imposed new “IT rules” that compel platforms to give the state unprecedented access to and control over user content.

AI development has been met with questions about its many impacts on our world. Maybe we should consider if it’s worth developing at all?

Using the vast volumes of publicly available data from videos, satellite imagery and social media posts, online open-source investigators are able to verify or debunk state-led propaganda and expose atrocities.

Trust in our institutions is at an all-time low. Mistrust can lead to the spread of misinformation and conspiracy thinking, such as seen in movements like QAnon and anti-vaccination campaigns, but it can also be a force for positive social change.