The Civil Rights Group Targeted By Facebook
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2018
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss the news that Tumblr will soon be banning all adult content on its site -- this in response to some instances of child pornography that got it suspended from Apple’s App Store. Hundreds of thousands of Tumblr users are upset, and the plan appears to be backfiring.
Then we’re excited to bring you a pair of interviews today, with two people who have emerged as leading critics of Facebook—one from the outside, and one from within, right before he left the company. We’ll talk first with former Facebook employee Mark S. Luckie about what he calls Facebook’s “black people problem.” Those words came from a memo that he wrote shortly before leaving the company last month, and which he published to the world after he left.
Then we’ll talk with someone who’s been thinking through problems at Facebook for many years--and recently discovered that his organization was also a target of the company’s controversial “opposition research” PR campaign. Rashad Robinson is the president of Color of Change, a progressive civil rights group that was among several nonprofits Facebook tried to discredit by highlighting their ties to the liberal financier George Soros. In the wake of that story, Robinson met last week with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
8:15 - Interview with Mark Luckie 16:00 - Interview with Rashad Robinson 35:20 - Don’t Close My Tabs
Don’t Close My Tabs:
The New York Times: Philippine Journalist, a Thorn to Duterte, Turns Herself In to Face Charges
Twitter: Natasha Vianna
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. |
| 0:15.8 | I'm April closer. |
| 0:17.5 | And I'm Will Aramis. |
| 0:22.4 | Hey, everyone, welcome to If Then. |
| 0:24.2 | We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense, a partnership between Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. |
| 0:29.2 | We're recording this on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 4th. |
| 0:32.8 | On today's show, we'll talk about the news that Tumblr will soon be banning all adult content on its site. |
| 0:38.3 | This is in response to some instances of child pornography that have been reported on the site. |
| 0:42.8 | Hundreds of thousands of Tumblr users, however, are upset now. |
| 0:46.1 | And the plan appears to already be backfiring since, after all, it's hard to know the difference between porn and say an artistic photo of a naked person. |
| 0:55.3 | We'll get into that. |
| 1:00.5 | Then we're excited to bring you a pair of interviews today with two people who have emerged as leading critics of Facebook, |
| 1:04.2 | one from the outside and one from within right before he left the company. |
| 1:10.4 | We'll talk first with former Facebook employee Mark S. Lucky about what he calls Facebook's Black People Problem. |
| 1:14.7 | Those words came from a memo that he wrote shortly before he left the company last month and which he published to the world after he departed. |
| 1:17.8 | We'll ask him about his experiences at Facebook and what the response has been to his criticism of the company. |
| 1:23.2 | And then we'll talk with someone who's been thinking through problems at Facebook for many years |
| 1:27.1 | and recently discovered that his organization was a target of the company's controversial opposition research PR campaign with the group definers. |
| 1:35.7 | Rashad Robinson is the president of color of change, a progressive civil rights group that was among the several nonprofits Facebook tried to discredit by highlighting their ties to the liberal financier |
| 1:44.5 | George Soros. In the wake of that story, Robinson met last week with Facebook's CEO |
| 1:49.9 | Cheryl Sandberg. We'll ask him how that meeting went and what fixes he hopes Facebook can make, |
| 1:55.1 | especially given that color of change has been advocating for a civil rights audit of the tech |
... |
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.