WEBVTT - A Look Back on 2021: Would Facebook Lie to You? (Probably) 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.920 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.000 job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.479 and I love all things tech. Though. I may just 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.560 need to come up with a new tagline, y'all, because 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:26.799 these episodes are really going to take it out of me, 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.360 because it's time to look back on some of the 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:34.320 biggest tech stories of the past year. Now, there is 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:38.760 no question that one was another rough one in a 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:43.239 series of rough years. The COVID nineteen pandemic and the 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.000 emergence of variants like Delta and Omicron have meant that 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:52.360 the tough conditions we found ourselves in during have continued. 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.760 And so that's going to weave in and out of 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.080 a lot of the stories we will be covering over 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.840 the next couple of episodes. And a lot happened, so 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.080 there will be several episodes. Also, a lot of this 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.720 is going to extend beyond tech in some ways, but 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:13.160 tech played a critical part in these stories. So one 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.600 really big story has been how tech companies like Apple, Google, 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:24.000 and Meta Slash, Facebook plus others have announced, postponed, and 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:29.039 in some cases indefinitely delayed a return to the office. 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:34.320 We've seen companies make these announcements several times throughout one 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.000 only to have to backtrack, like sometimes a few days 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:39.839 or a few weeks or a month or two later, 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:45.400 as things totally failed to get better. Maybe all the 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.440 optimism in the tech sector is a little bit on 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.760 the naive side. I think a lot of people start thinking, Hey, 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.400 just because we can seemingly do anything with tech means 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.559 that we can seemingly overcome any obstacle. Isn't necessarily true 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:04.240 see also paraos. But lots of companies originally planned a 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.080 return to the office, or at least a partial return 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.280 in which corporate employees were expected to come in at 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.000 least a few days out of each week. Uh And 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.520 a lot of that started in the late summer or 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.840 early fall of one. But then the Delta variant of 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.280 COVID nineteen changed things as Delta proved to be more 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.560 easily transmissible than other variants of COVID. And then you 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:31.680 started to hear plans of late fall or early winter 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.959 being the time to return, and a lot of those 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:39.040 have changed yet again. At the moment, plans generally look 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:43.919 at a January twenty twenty two return. Google had planned 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.640 to come back to the office for January ten, but 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.600 recently executives sent out an email indicating that employees would 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:54.720 not be required to comply and that the company will 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:59.920 reassess those plans early in the new year. Meta slash 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.320 Facebook is aiming for a return to office by January 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:07.200 thirty one, but has also offered a deferral program two 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.000 employees who can choose to push back their their return 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.800 date two between three and five months, So we might 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.919 be looking at the middle of twenty two, assuming things 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.359 are better by then, which based on the last year, 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.520 it's tough to make those kinds of assumptions. Apple, which 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.919 had aimed to get employees back in offices in early 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.400 February of next year, has now released a statement that 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.280 all return plans are currently on hold and that the 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.920 return date is yet to be determined. The pandemic has 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.640 really driven home the fact that making firm plans is 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.680 just really hard to do. The rise of new variants 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:50.840 requires changes in game plans. Meanwhile, employees are becoming accustomed 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:54.200 to being able to work from wherever they happen to be, 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.560 whether that's at home or on the road or whatever. 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.280 So we're seeing a trend of employees expressing reluctance to 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.920 go back to an office for lots of different reasons, 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.840 ranging from convenience to health and safety, to promoting a 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.560 different approach to you know, work life balance and uh. 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.080 One other big bonus to working remotely is that employees 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:20.479 don't necessarily have to live within commuting distance to their office. 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.960 So for employees who work at companies that are located 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:28.560 in really expensive markets like the San Francisco area, this 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:32.240 means they could potentially move away from San Francisco and 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.320 still work at that company. They're just doing so remotely, 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:37.320 and they can end up living in a place that 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.680 has a much lower cost of living, and that can 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.760 mean that they can afford a larger home or more 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:49.280 creature comforts, or put stuff towards savings. Plus they might 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.520 be dealing with a lot less hassle like city traffic. 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:57.279 Some employees have pushed back pretty hard against any move 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.720 to return to offices, at least pushing back against making 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:05.839 it mandatory. There have been numerous discussions about whether being 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:10.920 in an office is actually that important to you know, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:15.159 getting work done. Um, there's some studies that seem to 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.800 suggest that we actually get more work done at home, 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:24.039 but things like innovation and forming bonds with coworkers really 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.919 suffers when we are not in the same place at 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:32.359 the same time. So there are these conflicting thoughts about 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.640 what it means to do work and productivity and the 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.799 benefit of doing work at home versus in the office. 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.520 These are big conversations that are continuing to move forward, 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:46.360 not just in tech, but we're seeing it play out 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.600 a lot in the text sphere in particular. Now. Whether 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.920 we're shifting toward a parliament approach to a hybrid work 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:57.240 strategy where people at least work partly from home or remotely, 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.479 that's hard to say right now, but it's certainly seems 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.400 as though a lot of companies are going to have 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.040 trouble convincing employees to come back to the office on 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:08.760 a regular basis. It may turn out the companies that 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:13.120 don't offer a hybrid or work from home approach, we'll 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:17.640 find it more difficult to attract and retain talent. And 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.440 that's a big deal in the tech sector, right Like 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.680 if it turns out that company A offers employees the 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.559 chance to work from wherever they happen to be and 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:33.039 still get all of their compensation and benefits and company 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.560 B doesn't. You're gonna see migrations from company B to 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.280 company A. I mean that just that's kind of how 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.840 it works in the tech sector in particular. And then 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:44.680 we also have to look at another side of this, 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:49.599 all that empty office space. Apple infamously spent around five 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:54.880 billion dollars that's billion with a B and eight years 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:59.279 of work to build their their quote unquote spaceship campus 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.920 that opened in seventeen and it's got like seven cafes 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:07.880 and a hundred thousand square foot fitness center, it's got 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:12.840 a thousand person theater, tons of office space, so understandably 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.760 having it mostly empty has got to be a source 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:20.360 of frustration and pain for Apple executives. Also, it's really 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:22.960 hard to keep an eye on what's going on when 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.560 your employees aren't like forced to be right there at 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.200 the office. It's also really hard to intimidate employees with 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:34.200 your presence if you can't be there. So I'm not 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:40.160 saying that that's necessarily Apple's modus operandi, but I'm not 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.720 not saying it either. So we've seen office occupancy dropped 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:49.160 below you know, between twenty five and across the United 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:53.800 States of what it was pre pandemic for most of 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.800 the last two years. Now in some cities like San Francisco, 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.520 that occupancy rate is actually lower, it's below fifteen percent. 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:05.040 There's still a trend in construction, so there's still like 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.920 a trend of building out new office space that's still happening. 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.240 So this raises the question who the heck is going 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:16.040 to be in all those office spaces moving forward. We 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:21.400 haven't seen companies abandoned their lease agreements on MOSS. It's 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:23.840 not like companies are saying, well, no need for us 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:25.920 to have offices anymore, We're all gonna work from home, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.920 so let's get rid of those. That hasn't really happened, 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.600 at least not on a big scale. We have seen 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.160 some companies start to sublease some of their space, so 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.160 we might see some companies start to kind of slim 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.040 down as far as office space goes. They might reduce 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.880 the amount of office space that they maintain, especially if 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.959 they go to a hybrid approach where not all employees 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.319 will be in the office on every day, so people 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:56.640 might end up using shared employee spaces and thus you 0:08:56.679 --> 0:09:01.199 don't need as many individual desk as you would if 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.560 everybody were there for every day. That's a possibility, but 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.199 it's still too early to really say that that's the 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.120 future of work. I expect we're going to see a 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.160 lot more innovation and products that target the hybrid or 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:18.240 work from home models in two We've already seen some 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.520 of those emerge. Uh, and we've also seen companies like 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.199 Slack and Zoom pivot a little bit to target that 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:29.400 use case more so not necessarily developing a lot of 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:34.800 products specifically geared towards that, but rather hey, this this 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.640 tool is also good if you aren't in the office, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:39.959 that kind of thing. So I wouldn't be surprised to 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:45.000 see more of that introduced next year. Another pandemic issue 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.960 that started in and is going strong today is the 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:53.240 disruption of the supply chain. Now, this also goes well 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.120 beyond just tech. We're seeing it affect everything. Heck, I 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.679 see it at restaurants where they say, hey, we may 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.520 not have everything that's on the menu because of supply 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:05.880 chain issues. Um. So, supply chains are for pretty much 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.720 every sector are affected by this, but the tech space 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.840 has been hit really hard by it. Now we've all 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:16.360 heard about the semiconductor shortage, which has affected everything from 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.800 video game consoles to vehicles. And shortages mean that it's 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:23.600 really hard to find stuff like say a PS five 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.440 or It also means that car dealerships have less inventory 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.320 than what they typically have, and what they do have 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.760 ends up being way more expensive. Also means that some 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.360 car manufacturers are having to scale back on features and 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.520 options that they had introduced a few years ago because 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:44.920 now they just don't have the chips to continue offering 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.760 those features. You know that's BMW has done that with 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.360 a couple of its features, where things that you could 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.840 have purchased a couple of years ago now were no 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.360 longer available because they the company simply doesn't have the 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:00.840 chips to make those those components. So rather than go 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:04.080 without a car at all, the new ones just have 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.040 fewer features than older ones. That's a trend most companies 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:12.360 don't like to follow. Companies like Intel are working hard 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:17.400 to expand production for semiconductors and microchips. They're planning out 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.920 new manufacturing facilities all around the world, including within the 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.800 United States, but those plans are going to take a 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.559 few years to come to fruition, and in the meantime, 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.520 we've still got this shortage to deal with. Intel's CEO 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.760 has expressed doubt that the shortage will end before three 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:38.080 at the earliest, so we've got another year of this, 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.360 at least according to the CEO of Intel. There are 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:47.120 other leaders in tech who have slightly more optimistic prognoses, 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.679 but um, I'm not sure that those are realistic. I 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:54.679 hope they are. I'm just I'm not feeling it. Even 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.560 after building out new facilities, we still have issues with 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:00.880 the supply chain. So one of the really big problems 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:05.160 with the pandemic has been how port and shipping operations 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.240 have been affected. The pandemic has pulled back the curtain 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.240 on how much we depend upon a relatively small number 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:15.840 of professionals to keep the supply chain moving, and when 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:20.240 that gets disrupted, you have delays and bottlenecks and sort 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.000 of domino effects, and stuff starts to pile up at 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.160 one port while waiting to get loaded onto a ship, 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.280 and then the ship ends up getting in a bottleneck 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.360 waiting to dock at another port that's already backed up. 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:36.439 It becomes this sort of cascading effect across the entire industry, 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:40.520 and of course, the supply chain issue wasn't helped when 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:44.800 in March of this year, the cargo vessel named ever 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.920 Given got stuck in the Suez Canal. So for about 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:53.320 a week six days actually, the vessel was blocking a 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:56.560 key passage for cargo ships, and by a key passage, 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:59.920 I mean nearly a third of all container ship track 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.080 thick passes through the Suez Canal. Now, the Suez Canal 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:08.800 Authority took possession of the ship once it was finally dislodged, 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.080 and they held it for several months, finally releasing it 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:16.199 in July after demanding nearly one billion dollars in fines. 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.720 That amount was later reduced to around fifty million dollars. 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:23.440 And um, you know, if you've ever been stuck in 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.120 bumper to bumper traffic on a highway and you finally 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.680 get to a section that mysteriously clears up and there's 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.720 no obvious cause for what made the traffic jam happen 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.520 in the first place, then you've had some experience with 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:40.200 bottleneck issues. They can and do clear up, but it's 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.560 not instantaneous, and even as one element gets some breathing room, 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:49.400 others are lagging behind, so we're likely to continue feeling 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.640 the effects of the supply chain disruption for some time, 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:55.800 and not just in semiconductors. This also, by the way, 0:13:55.800 --> 0:14:00.280 effects pricing, which means we consumers start to really feel 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.360 the pinch, as I'm sure all of you out there 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.079 listening have seen in some way or another, whether it's 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:10.640 in food prices, coffee prices, fuel prices, electronics, all of 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.480 these things, we're all kind of feeling it in different ways. 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:16.840 On a related note, one trend we saw increase in 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:22.720 one was in bought activity, specifically bots. That is, these 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:28.160 automated scripts that are designed to purchase certain goods um 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.040 like like video game consoles, you know, high value goods 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.120 that are in high demand. Now, the whole purpose of 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.920 these bots is just to corner a market on whatever 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:43.480 high end good they're focusing on, and then resell those 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:48.880 goods at crazy markups on sites like eBay. So gamers 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.760 out there who are desperate for a new console might 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.080 find that the only option available to them is to 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.600 go and pay through the nose at you know, eBay 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:02.120 or some other resales site. Essentially, it's scalping. It's the 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.760 same approach that you see with people who scalp tickets. 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.160 So the practice inspired several US politicians, all of whom 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.840 are Democrats, to reintroduce a piece of legislation called the 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:17.120 Stopping the grinch Bots Act. This would make the use 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:21.640 of automated tools to bypass online retail security measures uh 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.840 in the effort to purchase and resell products and services illegal. 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:28.640 It was just it would become against the law, and 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.560 it would give authority to the Federal Trade Commission or 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:36.080 f TC to enforce this law. Lawmakers introduced a similar 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:38.680 measure in two thousand eighteen, but it's stalled out in 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:42.080 committees and never really went to vote. And there's also 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:47.520 a Stop the Grinch Act proposed by the Senator from Utah. 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.160 That one actually is looking to alleviate some of the 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.840 congestion within the supply chain, you know, the stuff that 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:56.000 we were talking about a moment ago, at least within 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.560 the United States, to help alleviate some of those issues. 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:03.840 Of course, you know, it wouldn't necessarily fixed stuff overseas, 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.680 which is part of the problem. We're talking about global problems, 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.040 so local solutions are kind of only a band aid, 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.480 but it would still be you know, a step toward that. However, 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:16.320 that's a different act, so it gets a bit confusing 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:18.640 because there's a Stop the grinch Bots Act and a 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.680 Stopping the Grinch Act, so they have similar names. Um, 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.680 but there are two different things. Something else that didn't 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.080 originate in one but it cranked into a higher gear 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.440 was the spread of misinformation. Now that's going to be 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.240 a running theme in a lot of this episode. But 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.520 before I get into all of that, let's take a 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:51.040 quick break. All right, misinformation. Um, there's a lot to 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:56.800 cover here, but when it comes to misinformation one, I mean, 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.320 I've kind of feel like Marlon Brando and The Wild 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.800 One when he's asked like what are you rebelling against? 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:04.399 He's like, what have you got? Well, in this case, 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:06.480 it would be you know, what do you have to 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.119 say about misinformation? And a well, how much time do 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:13.000 you have? Because uh, we could literally do a week's 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:17.920 worth of episodes about misinformation just in one. But I'll 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:22.800 try and keep it somewhat succinct, you know, I'll try 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.320 to to keep all of that in this episode. I'm 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:26.960 sure some of it will spill out as I talk 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.760 about other other stories later this week. Um, Okay, A 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.960 lot of the misinformation is focused on the pandemic from 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:40.040 folks proclaiming that they knew with absolute certainty that the 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:44.439 origins of the virus were from this one place or 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:48.440 this other place, without actually providing any evidence to that. 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.360 You know, they're just claiming it. Or there were those 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.439 who were proclaiming vaccines to be harmful or even a 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.040 tool that governments were using to try and control or 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.800 track populations. And then there were just the right denials 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.520 that there's even a pandemic going on in the first place, 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.520 that that COVID itself is a hoax. The fact that 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:12.280 several high profile deniers have subsequently died after contracting COVID 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:17.840 doesn't seem to squash the spread of that dangerous misinformation, 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:22.600 those lies, which again crazy, right, you have people who 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:26.520 are saying COVID's not real, then they die of COVID, 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.120 but the people that they've told COVID's not real are 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.359 still saying COVID's not real. Listen, I also wish COVID 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:39.080 weren't real. But you know, if if if wishes were horses, 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:43.560 beggars would ride. And that's just not the case. As 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:45.480 for the tech angle, well, as we all know, a 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:50.040 lot of these messages spread via social networking platforms like Facebook, 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:54.440 and we're going to talk so much about Facebook within 0:18:54.520 --> 0:19:00.240 the context of one. Volumes have been written recently about 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.800 how Facebook's algorithm has played a part in elevating messages 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:09.200 that spread harmful misinformation and how that ends up reinforcing falsehoods. 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:12.240 It amplifies the message, and it convinces people to do 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:18.480 stupid stuff like denounced vaccines or defy mask orders and more. 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.960 And I figure any reasonable person has to be left 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:26.560 wondering how many people have died because of those kinds 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.240 of messages. And keep in mind, the folks who die 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.399 are not necessarily the same ones who have bought into 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.480 the lie. Right. The folks who die might be friends 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.120 or family, or loved ones or co workers, or even 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:42.000 just strangers who just happened to be in the wrong 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:46.040 place at the wrong time, under the wrong circumstances and 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:49.800 they caught COVID as a result. This is why I 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.320 keep harping on this. I know I sound like a 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.560 broken record, but I'm not going to stop. I don't 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:59.600 want anyone to die. But even if I were super cynical, 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:01.960 that if I were one of those people who saying 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.320 this is Darwinian right, the idea that the people who 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:07.480 deny it are the ones who are dying off it 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:09.840 will it's a problem that takes care of itself. I 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:13.280 can't think that way because that's just writing people's lives off, 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:18.159 and that's fundamentally wrong to me. I cannot be that person. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.199 But even if I were, I would still have to 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:24.920 acknowledge that it's not just the ignorant and the misled 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:30.000 who are suffering here due to misinformation campaigns. It's everyone. Now. 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:34.160 Some of the messaging spread in claim that vaccines could 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:38.000 do anything from magnetize you to introduce some sort of 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.840 tracking device into your body. It didn't matter that folks 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:45.439 pointed out that those relies like they would show that no, 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.880 there's no such thing that magnets, No, that's not happening, 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:51.399 or that all you have to do is own a 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:55.320 smartphone and that device alone is tracking everywhere you go 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:59.080 and everything you do. There's no need to inject a tracker, 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:03.160 and you you're already a willing participant in an ecosystem 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.560 that's tracking you all the time. None of that matters 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:10.520 when it comes to stopping misinformation. The best way to 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:14.159 stop misinformation really besides you know, sitting people down and 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:17.199 having one on ones and really getting to it is 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:21.919 not allowing for that amplification and that rapid spread in 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:27.320 the first place. All right, Uh, but not all the 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.960 misinformation had to do just with COVID. We will touch 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.119 back on that. There was something else that happened in 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.720 one where misinformation played a pivotal role, and let's get 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.040 to it. I mean, it feels like it happened a 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:45.040 billion years ago to me, But it was on January six, 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:51.840 twenty one, when there was a nearly successful insurrection in 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:54.920 the United States. That is the date when a group 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.920 of violent individuals stormed the US capital with the goal 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:03.919 of interfering with the ratification of the twenty twenty election. Now, 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.360 Congress was in the process of what is usually a 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:12.359 pretty ceremonial event where the states present and ratify their 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:16.480 elector results and the winner of the most recent election 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.760 is made official. Everyone knows who the winner is already, 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:22.760 by the way, because everyone already knows the outcome of 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:27.320 the election, but this is the process that officially recognizes 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:33.480 the winner. The rioters on January six, encouraged by then 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:37.320 President Donald Trump, were on a mission to disrupt this 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.040 process at any cost, with some going so far as 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:44.240 to advocate for the capture and execution of the then 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:49.040 Vice President Mike Pence, because it was Pence's ceremonial duty 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.879 to recognize the results, and he was not going to 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:58.160 overturn the recognized results despite what Trump wanted him to do. 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:03.640 So his followers, Trump followers, we're saying, Okay, let's kill 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:10.840 the vice president. A truly horridonous series of crazy, irrational 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:15.480 thoughts right now, y'all. This story is so outrageous that 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:18.280 it is hard to get my mind wrapped around it. 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.840 And perhaps even more outrageous is how so much of 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.920 the United States has just kind of accepted this as it's, 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:28.439 you know, just a thing that happened. It's bonkers to me. 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:31.800 But let's get back to the tech. Investigators looking into 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:35.439 the January six riots suspected that a lot of planning 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.679 for the event was carried out on various social network 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:44.600 platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and at the time, parlor or parlay. 0:23:44.640 --> 0:23:48.200 I'm gonna call it parlor. This story continues to play 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:51.240 out today. By the way, there was a finding in 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:55.320 the FBI released in August of this year that said 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:57.919 that they found very little evidence that there was a 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:01.480 lot of planning going on on social networks at the 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:04.720 time leading up to the January six riots, But then 0:24:04.760 --> 0:24:07.159 subsequently there have been others who have come for and 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:10.560 said no, we totally use social networks to help plan 0:24:10.720 --> 0:24:13.920 this stuff out. So it's the story that has gone 0:24:13.960 --> 0:24:18.960 back and forth many times throughout um. But there are 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:21.040 still people who are calling out for platforms to be 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:25.919 held accountable for amplifying misinformation campaigns that led to civil 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:30.480 unrest and violence, including the deaths of five people. Some 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:34.280 have been held more to account than others, so Parlor, 0:24:34.359 --> 0:24:36.760 for instance, had a pretty rough go of it. Early 0:24:36.840 --> 0:24:39.639 in the year. The site, which promoted itself as a 0:24:39.680 --> 0:24:42.680 place where freedom of speech is valued above everything else, 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:45.600 was mostly known as being the home for far right 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:51.880 conservatives and conspiracy theorists. Parlor's site depended upon Amazon Web 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:56.399 Services for for hosting, and in the wake of the 0:24:56.480 --> 0:25:00.399 January six insurrection, Google and Apple both were moved the 0:25:00.440 --> 0:25:03.640 Parlor app from their respective stores, and a short time 0:25:03.760 --> 0:25:08.040 later Amazon removed Parlor from a WS and the site 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:13.680 went dark. Parlor subsequently saw its CEO, John Matt's, fired 0:25:13.760 --> 0:25:17.800 and replaced first by Mark Meckler and then by George Farmer. 0:25:18.240 --> 0:25:21.280