Fact And Fiction on Wikipedia
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 October 2018
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the announcement that Amazon would raise the minimum wage for its US workers to 15 dollars an hour. While Jeff Bezos may be receiving praise for the move this week, another enigmatic tech CEO is facing retribution. Elon Musk has agreed to settle with the SEC following tweets he made about potentially taking the company private and will step down from Tesla’s board.
Net neutrality is also back in the news: California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill on Sunday to implement net neutrality protections in the state starting next year. But within 30 minutes of Brown’s signing, the Justice Department announced it would be suing the state of California to prevent circumventing the federal net neutrality repeal.
And the headaches continue for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook... Last week it was announced that a massive security breach to the social media site allowed for hackers to take control of upwards of 50 million accounts. Facebook does not yet know who the culprits are.
The hosts are then joined by Katherine Maher, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, best known for, well, Wikipedia: the fifth most popular website on the planet. Maher talks to Will and April about how it all works; how a community of millions of volunteer editors are able to pull fact from fiction, how a site dedicated to trying to be correct deals with false news, how it deals with harassment within its editor community, its changing relationship with Google, and why diversity is important in writing the web’s massive nonprofit encyclopedia.
17:04 - Interview with Katherine Maher47:15 - Don’t Close My Tabs
Don’t Close My Tabs: Slate:
Podcast production by Max Jacobs
If Then plugs:
You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com.
If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to If Then, The Show About How Technology is Changing Our Lives and Our Future. I'm Will Aramis. |
| 0:17.1 | And I'm April Glazer. |
| 0:22.6 | Hey, everyone. Welcome to If Then. We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense, a partnership between Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. |
| 0:30.6 | We are recording this on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 2nd. |
| 0:34.2 | Yeah, it's only midweek, but it's been a wild newsweek already. As we're recording this, |
| 0:37.8 | it was announced that Amazon would raise the minimum wage for its U.S. workers to $15 an hour. |
| 0:43.2 | That's in response to a lot of pressure from labor activists and the media. |
| 0:47.4 | Meanwhile, another enigmatic tech CEO is facing retribution. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, |
| 0:53.6 | has agreed to settle with the SEC |
| 0:55.2 | following tweets he made about potentially taking the company private. As part of the settlement, |
| 1:00.1 | Musk will have to step down from his role as chairman of Tesla's board, although he will get to |
| 1:05.5 | remain CEO. And net neutrality is back in the news as well, at least at home here in California, Governor |
| 1:11.4 | Jerry Brown signed a bill on Sunday to implement net neutrality productions in the state |
| 1:16.4 | starting next year. But within 30 minutes of Brown signing, the Justice Department announced |
| 1:21.0 | it would be suing the state of California to prevent circumventing the federal net neutrality |
| 1:24.6 | repeal that happened earlier this summer. And just to add to the list, the headaches continue from Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. |
| 1:31.5 | Last week, it was announced that a massive security breach of the social network allowed hackers to take control of upwards of 50 million accounts. |
| 1:39.4 | Facebook does not yet know who the culprits are or what they plan to do with the information. |
| 1:45.0 | Whoa. And finally, we have a very rad interview with Catherine Marr, the executive director of |
| 1:49.9 | the Wikimedia Foundation, best known for Wikipedia, the fifth most popular website on the planet. |
| 1:56.0 | Mar talks to us about how it all works, how a community of millions of volunteer editors are |
| 1:59.7 | able to pull fact from fiction, and how a site dedicated to trying to be correct deals with false news, harassment |
... |
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