The Big Tech Heel Turn

When Natalia Antelava co-founded Coda Story in early 2016 to cover democratic backsliding around the globe, she wasn’t expecting the tech industry to be such a big part of the story. It wasn’t only that autocratic regimes were benefiting from compliant Silicon Valley companies. By launching a new media organization, Antelava also discovered how entangled journalism itself had become with some of the same companies, which proclaimed their commitment to a free press while quietly cozying up to their enemies.

In this episode of Journalism 2050, Antelava joins Emily Bell and Heather Chaplin to discuss the naivety with which news organizations treated the likes of Google and Facebook in the early years of the internet, and some of the bizarre conferences, collaborations and initiatives that resulted from it. To secure journalism’s future, Antelava warns, there must never be such innocence again. “We got into bed with the wrong guys, and we got ourselves in big trouble,” she says. 

How responsible are journalists for the perilous state of their industry? Who are their “natural allies”? And as the authoritarian tendencies of the internet’s gatekeepers become clearer and clearer, what compromises might journalists make, and what red lines must they draw?

Further Reading:

Coda Story: An interview with Richard Gingras

The Guardian: Apple and Google Accused of Political Censorship Over Alexei Navalny App

Freedom House: The Uncertain Future of the Global Internet

Hosts: Emily Bell and Heather Chaplin

Producer: Amanda Darrach

Production Coordinator: Hana Joy

Research: Samuel Earle

Art Director: Katie Kosma

Illustrator: Aaron Fernandez

Music: Henry Crooks