Should Tech Companies Take a Stand Against Family Separation?
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2018
⏱️ 27 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss the horrifying story that’s on everyone’s minds this week: the Trump Administration’s policy of separating immigrant families crossing the US Mexico border. They focus on how tech’s big players -- some of the most powerful companies in the world -- are responding to the policy and what we should expect from those companies and their leaders in the face of a humanitarian emergency.
The hosts also discuss the fallout from AT&T’s merger with Time Warner. Both Disney and now Comcast want to buy Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. And as always - Don’t Close My Tabs - some of the most interesting stories from the web this week.
A quick update to Will’s tab, in which he discussed Verizon’s announcement that it would stop sharing customers’ real-time location data with third parties: As of Wednesday, the other three major carriers have all announced that they will do the same.Â
Don’t Close My Tabs
The New Yorker: The Government Has No Plan For Reuniting The Immigrant Families It Is Tearing Apart
The Verge: Verizon Will Stop Sell Real-Time Location Data to Third-Party Brokers
Podcast production by Max Jacobs.
If Then plugs:Â
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. |
| 0:08.9 | I'm Will Oremus. |
| 0:10.0 | And I am April Glazer. |
| 0:22.7 | Hey, everyone, welcome to If Then. |
| 0:28.6 | We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense, a partnership between Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. |
| 0:32.3 | We're recording this on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 19th. |
| 0:36.3 | On today's show, we'll talk about the troubling story that's on everyone's minds this week, the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. |
| 0:42.1 | Since this is a tech show, we'll focus on how tech's big players, some of the most powerful companies in the world, are responding to the policy. |
| 0:49.8 | We'll discuss what we should expect from those companies and their leaders in the face of a humanitarian emergency. |
| 0:55.5 | We'll also discuss the fallout from AT&T's merger with Time Warner. |
| 0:59.9 | Disney and now Comcast both want to buy Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox. |
| 1:05.1 | And as always, we'll end with Don't Close My Taps, some of our favorite things online this week. |
| 1:10.0 | Hey, Will. |
| 1:27.6 | Hi, April, how you doing? Okay, as okay as one can be. How are you doing, Will? Yeah, just trying to keep up with a fast-moving news week. And first, before we get into everything that's been happening, we wanted to say thanks again to everybody who's been writing in to the show. We're actually planning a mailbag episode this summer. So please keep those questions and comments coming. And if we |
| 1:31.9 | don't get to them right away, we probably will pretty soon. So write us at if then at slate.com. |
| 1:39.4 | And we'll look forward to discussing your questions and comments on the air at some point soon. |
| 1:44.9 | Okay, well, so you have some reporting you wanted to talk about with regard to how the technology industry, the most powerful industry in the world, is responding to all of the immigration news about family separation at the border. |
| 1:58.7 | Yeah, that's right. |
| 1:59.4 | And this isn't primarily a tech story. |
| 2:01.4 | It's primarily a human story and a political story. |
| 2:04.9 | But it is a tech story in some real and important ways. |
| 2:08.4 | And one of those is that a lot of the biggest tech companies are involved in one way or another in face recognition, in surveillance, in some of the tools |
... |
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