The Information's 411

Cory and Alex tell the story of the messaging app Telegram and its mysterious founder, who find themselves in the global spotlight after rapid growth recently. Can the company figure out a business model? And will it crack down further on chat groups with the potential to spark real-world violence?

Following the announcement of the new union of Alphabet employees, we dive into the rising trend of worker unionization in the tech industry. Then Cory talks to Alex about how social media companies will handle President Trump's presence on their platforms after his incitement of the riot at the Capitol.

Our year end episode features an interview with musical artist Pharrell Williams and non-profit advisor Willa Seldon who talked about their experiences as black entrepreneurs. They also shared their views on what most investors and executives who aren't racial or ethnic minorities don't understand about the headwinds that minorities face in the business world. 

Their new organization supporting Black and Latinx entrepreneurs is called Black Ambition, and the website for their startup competition is www.blackambitionprize.com

As the year winds down we look ahead to what we think will transpire in 2021. Tom chats with Jessica Toonkel and Martin Peers about the tumult in media and whether Hollywood really is abandoning theaters. Then Cory talks with Zoe Bernard and Kate Clark about upcoming changes in the investing space and why financial services startups took off this year.

Amir and Cory explain what DoorDash and Airbnb's specatular debuts on the markets means about both companies and about the tech world as a whole. Then we chat with Peter Hamby of Snapchat, who hosts its popular political series Good Luck America. He talks about whether social media platforms are doing enough to root out misinformation from politicians and if Obama still is in tune with the way young people consume news.

Cory speaks with Kevin McLaughlin, our enterprise reporter and soothsayer, about the reasons Salesforce spent big to acquire Slack. Tom talked to Paris about why Generation Z is both Amazon's biggest critic and a loyal customer base. 

Cory talks to Scott Wiener, a member of the California state senate, about how the future of the tech industry in San Francisco. We wrote this week about the CEOs of Dropbox, Brex and Splunk leaving the city permanently. Wiener isn't sure the trend will last. "There have been a lot of speculative predictions that I'm not sure will play out," he said.

Related: Tech CEOs Are Saying Goodbye to San Francisco

Alex talks about the struggle inside Facebook over how to deal with misleading posts from politicians. Cory gets the inside story from Nick Bastone about struggles at Alphabet's Loon, the experimental company that's tried to bring internet connectivity to rural areas.

Paris explores Amazon's plan to own more parts of the delivery process with the building out of its trucking fleets. Wayne talks about Apple's fraying relationship with manufacturer Foxconn.

How can we start to make sense of the implications of this election for tech? Cory talks to three tech-savvy political veterans for early takeaways.

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