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Tech Life

Conspiracy theories rage online over coronavirus

Tech Life

BBC

Tech News, Technology, News

4.3227 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Is social media likely to help or hinder efforts to contain the outbreak? We hear about the lessons from past epidemics. Plus, is the tech business reaching "peak capitalism" and is there a future for it based on values other than making money? And why people keep choosing bad passwords. Presented by Rory Cellan-Jones, with BBC tech reporter Jane Wakefield. Produced by Jat Gill.

(Image: A visitor tries to sanitise hands before being allowed into a state hospital at Yaba in Lagos, Nigeria, February 2020. Credit: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/ AFP via Getty Images).

Transcript

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0:00.0

On Radio 4, the more you listen, the more you see.

0:04.7

Hello, I'm Brian Cox.

0:05.6

And I'm Robin Ince, and this is The Infinite Monkey Cage.

0:08.3

In this series, we're going to have a planet off.

0:10.8

I feel like Jupiter wins.

0:12.8

And after all of that, we're just going to chill out a bit.

0:15.9

We're talking about your bog standard.

0:17.8

Ice, not the fancy one.

0:20.1

Science with funny bits.

0:21.9

The new series of The Infinite Monkey Cage.

0:24.1

Listen on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

0:28.1

Thanks for downloading TechTent from the BBC World Service.

0:31.3

Find out more at BBCworldservice.com slash TechTent.

0:38.3

Hello and welcome to TechTent, your weekly guide to all the top news and trends from the technology business.

0:44.3

I'm Rory Kathleen Jones and this week we're looking at the way misinformation about the coronavirus is spreading via social media and hearing just how dangerous that can be.

0:55.5

Has the Silicon Valley model, which has put growth before everything else, had its day?

1:00.6

Two influential thinkers tell us why the tech giants need to change.

1:05.1

And a cybersecurity expert explains how we could nudge people to be more secure with their passwords.

1:11.2

Joining me this week to chew through all of these stories and more is BBC Technology reporter Jane Wakefield.

1:16.7

How's your week been, Jane?

1:18.0

Hello. Well, actually, I've been living the story this week,

1:20.5

so I wrote about a company that uses facial recognition, which we'll hear more about later.

...

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