Tech Workers Fight Back
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 June 2018
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the midterm elections coming up in November -- and whether Silicon Valley companies are ready for the deluge of disinformation -- whether from Russia, Macedonia, or right here in the U.S.
The hosts are joined by Paige Panter, a product manager in Silicon Valley who is also a volunteer with the Tech Workers Coalition, a group that’s been active since 2014, but more recently has acted as a kind of communications hub for people who work in the technology industry to organize to make demands of their employers. They discuss this recent wave of tech employee activism, how it got started, and what could come down the line.
Don’t Close My Tabs
The New York Times: San Francisco Restaurant Can't Afford Waiters. So They're Putting Diners to Work.
SF Chronicle: Silicon Valley bus drivers sleep in parking lots. They may have to make way for development
Wired: How A Child Moves Through A Broken Immigration System
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.
Listen to If Then via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to If Then, the show about how technology is changing our lives and our future. |
| 0:09.8 | I'm April Blazer. |
| 0:11.2 | And I'm Will Oremus. |
| 0:22.7 | Hey everyone, welcome to Ipthen. |
| 0:28.2 | We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense, a partnership between Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. |
| 0:32.0 | We're recording this on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 26th. |
| 0:35.3 | On today's show, we'll talk about the midterm elections coming up in November, |
| 0:42.2 | and whether Silicon Valley Internet companies are ready for the deluge of disinformation that is sure to accompany them, whether it's coming from Russia, Macedonia, or right here in the United States. We'll also be joined by |
| 0:46.8 | Paige Panter, a product manager in Silicon Valley, who is also a volunteer with the Tech |
| 0:51.4 | Workers Coalition, a group that's been active since 2014, |
| 0:54.9 | but more recently has acted as a kind of communications hub for people who are working in |
| 0:59.0 | the technology industry to organize to make demands of their employers. |
| 1:03.1 | More recently, some of those employees from Amazon have demanded the company stop |
| 1:07.1 | working with police departments to provide facial recognition technology for surveillance, |
| 1:46.1 | which civil rights groups argue, could lead to increased racial profiling. Employees at Microsoft also wrote a letter to the CEO, Satya Nadella, asking their employer to terminate its $19.4 million contract with ICE. We'll discuss this recent wave of tech employee activism, how it got started, and what could come down the line. All right, April, we've got a lot to talk about politics are back on the agenda. I feel like we still haven't fully sorted out the 2016 election. Now we have more coming. But how are you doing this week? I know. The ground is moving under our feet always, particularly in this administration. I am doing okay, all things considered, Will. Are you doing all right this week? It's just starting. We don't know. |
| 1:51.4 | Thank you for reminding me that it's just starting. A fresh hell might pop up by Wednesday. |
| 1:56.0 | I'm sure it will. I'm doing fine. I'm dealing with some June gloom here in Santa Barbara, and I'm sure everyone around the country will be very sympathetic to the fact that it's 68 and cloudy here. Oh, yeah. So shed a tear or two for me. But, you know, we are now talking about the elections again because November is not that far away, especially as quickly as time is moving these days. |
| 2:19.8 | What's on your mind there? |
| 2:21.8 | Well, so the 2016 elections, as we've been talking about almost every week, it feels like, on this show, were a pivotal moment, not only for U.S. politics, obviously, but for the internet companies that control the flow of news and information online. |
| 2:34.8 | Google, YouTube, online, Google, |
| 2:39.6 | YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, probably Facebook most of all, have been reckoning with their role in politics and online speech basically ever since Trump took office. There's been this |
| 2:44.6 | nonstop flurry of announcements around fake news and hate speech moderation, combating conspiracy |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.