Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. In our shift to a digital future, we need alternatives to Big Tech. Homepage: techtonic.fm

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May 21, 2018: Felix Salmon, financial journalist, live in-studio

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Credit: Ariadne Remoundakis
This week: Felix Salmon, financial journalist and frequent contributor to Slate.

Pointers to Felix's work:

• @felixsalmon on Twitter

• Why Is It So Hard to Create a Good Bank? (Slate, May 18, about Simple, an online bank)

• The Media Narrative Around Amazon Is Out of Control (Slate, April 26): "If Amazon traded on the same multiple of earnings as everybody else, its stock would fall by roughly 90 percent. . . . It’s impossible to predict what’s going to cause the view of Amazon to change or when that’s going to happen. But given the shifting sense of the role that big tech plays in our lives, it’s reasonable to expect that, when that day arrives, the change will be negative. For the company, for its narrative, and for its share price."

• Other Slate pieces by Felix



Other tech news

• We Made a Tool So You Can Hear Both Yanny and Laurel (NYT, May 16): Helpful slider shows how the audio goes from one side (definitely Laurel) to the middle (also Laurel, as we can all agree), and then all the way to right (OK, no more Laurel there).

• How did Google get so big? (60 Minutes, May 21): "The FTC's Bureau of Competition recommended [in 2011] that an antitrust lawsuit be filed against Google . . . It specifically cited Google for stealing competitors' content, and imposing restrictions on advertisers and other websites that limited their ability to utilize other search engines. But the recommendations were rejected. . . . [many] who were directly involved in the investigation have long suspected that the outcome had something to do with Google's political muscle in Washington and its close relationship with the Obama administration. Google spent more money on lobbying last year than any other corporation, employing 25 different firms and helping fund 300 trade associations, think tanks and other groups many of which influence policy."

Note in particular from 60 Minutes: past Techtonic guest Jonathan Taplin (here's the show), antitrust lawyer Gary Reback, and EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. All on Team Techtonic.

• Google’s Selfish Ledger Is An Unsettling Vision Of Silicon Valley Social Engineering (The Verge, May 17): an "internal video from 2016 shows a Google concept for how total data collection could reshape society." Nightmare material, courtesy of Google.

• Oh, and it looks like Google faked their Duplex phone-bot demo (Axios, May 17): "Axios asked Google for the name of the hair salon or restaurant, in order to verify both that the businesses exist and that the calls were not pre-planned. . . . A longtime Google spokeswoman declined to provide either name."

• Don't forget, from last week's show notes: How to Keep Google From Owning Your Online Life, by David Pierce in the WSJ (May 8). Interesting that the Wall Street Journal is offering alternatives to Google services.

• Speaking of alternatives, past Techtonic guest Gabriel Weinberg (here's the show) and his search engine Duck Duck Go are featured here: This Search Engine Is Profitable Without Tracking You Online. And Google and Facebook Could Do It Too.

• Conclusion: We need to break up Big Tech, starting with Google and Facebook. Axios reports that the left (and the right) are turning up heat to break up Facebook: progressive organizations running an online ad campaign saying "Facebook keeps violating your privacy"... the article adds, "The right is just as willing to take on Facebook right now. Conservative lawmakers spent a hearing last month talking about charges that the social network and its competitors have silenced conservative voices." A rare bipartisan agreement!

• Oh, and as for Facebook: Zuck testifies tomorrow in the EU, and meantime New data shows people actually increased their Facebook usage after the Cambridge Analytica scandal (Business Insider, May 20). It's not too late to delete your Facebook account: easy how-to at deletefacebook.com.

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...and if we have time for a sing along tonight:

Building a Surveillance State

Building a surveillance state
Google, Google
Privacy is what they hate
All Google day

It's Facebook, too
They're spying on you
We've got to change before it's too late
All Google day

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