System Crash
Tech giants like Google and Facebook have conquered — some would say killed — the internet. Elon Musk used his platform to help elect Trump, and Silicon Valley elites want to gut the public sector. OpenAI and Microsoft aim to wipe away millions of jobs. Uber is driving down wages. Apple is impenetrable. Amazon is inescapable. All this high tech, and our quality of life is getting lower. The system has crashed.
So, System Crash: a weekly tech news show willing to tell the hard truths about how tech — and the titans who own and operate it — is really transforming the world. Co-hosts Paris Marx and Brian Merchant dissect the stories that matter, break news of their own, offer expert commentary, and interview journalists, whistleblowers, authors, and tech workers and ordinary people fighting back.
System Crash
The Looming Specter of the TikTok Ban
After hearing from a very special guest, Brian and Paris consider: Is the US really about to ban TikTok? If nothing changes come January 19th, it will. We explain why Congress *really* moved to shut down the massive social media app, and what might happen next, now that the Supreme Court is getting involved and Trump's changed his mind. Plus, Elon Musk points his cash cannon at the UK, and Amazon goes on strike.
Mentioned this week:
- Shoshana Wodinsky explained why the data argument about TikTok makes no sense.
- Jacob Silverman wrote about Jeffrey Yass’ influence on Trump’s TikTok position.
- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage met Elon Musk and says he might donate to the political party.
- Paris wrote about Elon Musk’s growing relationships with the global far right and how this is coming to Canada through Shopify.
- A Senate probe found Amazon knew its high production quotas were increasing worker injuries and ignored safety recommendations aimed at reducing them.
- The UK government is studying new copyright exemptions for generative AI training.
- Google warned the UK in September it would be left behind if it doesn’t build work data centers and change copyright rules.
Theme music is “Dystopia” by YACHT. Production is by Eric Wickham.
