The Internet of Hate
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2018
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser look further into the presidential election in Brazil and how tech has played a role. On Sunday, the far right candidate Jair Bolsanaro was elected President, and many have attributed his victory to misinformation that spread like wildfire through WhatsApp in the months leading up to the election.
And it’s time again for more gadgets. Apple unveiled a new series of gizmos on Tuesday in Brooklyn: there were big changes to the iPad, Macbook Air, and MacMini.
The hosts are also joined by Joan Donovan, the lead researcher at Data & Society, who focuses on hate groups congregate on social media. This conversation, sadly, comes following the horrific terrorist attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh over the weekend. The shooter, Robert Bowers, had been an active user of the free-speech-centric social media platform Gab that has become a kind of digital playpen for neo-Nazi and white supremacists since forming in 2016. Gab went offline Sunday night.
5:43 - Interview with Pablo Ortellado15:11 - Interview with Joan Donovan33:41 - Don’t Close My Tabs
Don’t Close My Tabs:
The New York Times: How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the “Father of Android”
Frontline: The Facebook Dilemma (Part One)
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 Our Technology is changing our lives and our future. |
| 0:14.6 | I'm April Glazer. |
| 0:15.9 | And I'm Will Oremus. |
| 0:20.7 | Hey, everyone, welcome to If Then. |
| 0:22.5 | We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense in partnership between Slate, Arizona State |
| 0:26.4 | University, and New America. |
| 0:28.1 | We're recording this on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 30th. |
| 0:31.6 | On today's show, we'll look further into the presidential election in Brazil and how |
| 0:35.1 | tech has played a role. |
| 0:36.5 | On Sunday, the far-right candidate |
| 0:37.8 | Jaya Bolsonaro was elected president and many have attributed his victory to massive misinformation |
| 0:43.3 | spread through WhatsApp, which is, of course, owned by Facebook. We'll talk about the newest tech |
| 0:48.5 | from Apple, which had an event in New York City this week. It launched two new Macs and a new iPad. Yes, Apple in the Big Apple. |
| 0:56.2 | We'll also be joined by Joan Donovan, the lead researcher at Data and Society, who focuses on |
| 1:01.7 | online hate groups and all kinds of manipulation on social media. Donovan has done extensive |
| 1:06.4 | research on how communities of hate use social media to recruit and organize. It's a conversation that |
| 1:11.9 | sadly has been reignited this week following the horrific terrorist attack on the Tree of Life |
| 1:16.0 | Synagogue in Pittsburgh over the weekend. The shooter Robert Bowers has been an active user of the |
| 1:21.3 | free speech absolutist social media platform Gab that has become kind of a digital playpen for |
| 1:26.7 | neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Gab went offline Sunday night. And as always, we'll end with Don't Close My Tabs. Some of the best things we saw on the web this week. Okay, Will. So I'm talking to you from New York or Delaware. I know you were just in New York, right? I made a whirlwind trip up to New York for the Apple event. It was a rare Apple event in New York. Usually they have them in the Bay Area. So I made the trip. I'm back in Delaware now and I'm talking to you from there. |
| 1:50.4 | Yeah. And so how was it? What was the vibe? It was interesting. You know, I've always covered these things from afar. This was my first Apple event. And from afar, it's very easy to joke about the stuff they're saying and snark and make funny comments on Twitter and criticize. |
| 2:05.3 | It's harder to do that when you're sitting in a theater surrounded by really genuinely enthusiastic Apple employees who are just going nuts and cheering. |
... |
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