Facebook Is 'Designed To Destroy Democracy' W/ Zephyr Teachout

 

Attorney, associate professor of law at Fordham University, political candidate, and author Zephyr Teachout joins The Katie Halper Show to discuss the urgency of regulating Big Tech — particularly social media companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Zephyr uses Myanmar as an example of a bad actor — in this case, the government — using Facebook’s algorithm to manipulate what users were seeing in order to build support for a horrifying agenda. This likely seemed to be a highly improbable problem for the U.S. at the time, but as the riots at the Capitol have shown us, feeding people an algorithmically determined diet of unvetted “information” can have calamitous results. Communications have been regulated in other industries for ages, and Teachout argues that the same should apply here. Big Tech optimizes for extremist content because it increases engagement and therefore, profits. We have the ability to design an information infrastructure that isn’t toxic to our democracy, and we need to begin treating these platforms as dangerous immediately. Zephyr on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZephyrTeachout “Break ‘em Up”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/978125... ***Please support The Katie Halper Show on Patreon*** https://www.patreon.com/thekatiehalpe... Follow Katie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kthalps