Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to book a f Daily
Speaker 1: with Me your Girl Danielle Moody recording from the Home Bunker, Folks.
Speaker 1: Over the past several weeks, since that piece of shit
Speaker 1: in Selle Elon Musk has taken over Twitter and has basically,
Speaker 1: you know, thrown out the window all of the protections
Speaker 1: that were provided and should be provided by a social
Speaker 1: media platform of its stature and of its importance, we've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of think pieces and critical analysis around
Speaker 1: the importance of the Internet, around the importance of a
Speaker 1: global town square, and the fact that our government, by
Speaker 1: virtue of not understanding really truly how technology works, the
Speaker 1: importance of social media platforms, and just you know, sheer
Speaker 1: ignorance has allowed a maniacal, egomaniac billionaire to take over
Speaker 1: this platform and to do with it whatever he wants.
Speaker 1: Today's guest on wokef bridget Todd, who you may know
Speaker 1: from the podcasts There Are No Girls on the Internet Now,
Speaker 1: has a new podcast, The Internet Hate Machine. Her and
Speaker 1: I get into a conversation about the importance of regulation,
Speaker 1: around the importance of seeing platforms like Twitter as a
Speaker 1: public utility, and the missed opportunities that our government had
Speaker 1: and still has and is still making in regard to
Speaker 1: how they decide to regulate this force. The theme that
Speaker 1: I want folks to understand is that I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, in the advent of social media, truly right,
Speaker 1: like it taking hold in the early two thousands, Facebook
Speaker 1: being I think the first, if I'm not wrong, outside
Speaker 1: of chat rooms and those things, followed by Twitter, and
Speaker 1: then you know, later on Instagram and TikTok and you
Speaker 1: know all of the other ones that would bubble up
Speaker 1: in between. Twitter has stood alone in terms of the
Speaker 1: power that this platform has had, The power it has
Speaker 1: had for community organizers, the power it has had for activists,
Speaker 1: for potential elected officials, for elected officials, for the presidents
Speaker 1: of the United States. It has been a place in
Speaker 1: real time where you go to find out what is happening,
Speaker 1: not only in this country, but around the world. We
Speaker 1: learned about activations like the Arab Spring that took place
Speaker 1: in the earlier two thousands. We learned about what was
Speaker 1: happening in Ukraine, in Iran, in China. Because of social media,
Speaker 1: journalists have been able You've been able to follow them
Speaker 1: in real time as they're on the ground in crisis
Speaker 1: situations like in Ferguson. You know Ferguson and what happened
Speaker 1: there is a prime example with the murder of Mike
Speaker 1: Brown that had it not been for on the ground
Speaker 1: eye reporters tweeting and people beginning to follow in live
Speaker 1: recording and periscoping what was happening in Ferguson, it would
Speaker 1: have never been picked up by cable news and national
Speaker 1: news outlets. It would have been yet another violent act
Speaker 1: that was contained to the community that it was happening in,
Speaker 1: as opposed to being blown up as a national crisis
Speaker 1: and incident. You look at George Floyd, right and the
Speaker 1: fact that this begat an entire summer of activism because
Speaker 1: of the ability of those on the ground to film
Speaker 1: what was happening and then to be able to send
Speaker 1: those videos out into the universe. Without a robust Twitter,
Speaker 1: we would have never had those activations. And so when
Speaker 1: people say things like, well, Elon Musk is stupid and
Speaker 1: he doesn't know what he's doing, Elon Musk knows exactly
Speaker 1: what the fuck he is doing. He is a white supremist,
Speaker 1: in sell fucking misogynist, patriarchal piece of shit. I wish
Speaker 1: I could form an opinion he took over this platform
Speaker 1: because like the greedy ass billionaire he is, he, much
Speaker 1: like his ilk, do not want the people to organize,
Speaker 1: do not want the people to unite, do not want
Speaker 1: those that have traditionally been marginalized and oppressed to have
Speaker 1: a voice and to develop a community of followers, right,
Speaker 1: Because then you know what that means. It means that
Speaker 1: those that are at the top lose power because the
Speaker 1: power is being taken back by the people. And how
Speaker 1: do you stop activations like we saw in the summer
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty, how do you stop push back against
Speaker 1: fascist regimes like the Republican Party and Donald Trump and
Speaker 1: Maga Dum. You take away the town square, you take
Speaker 1: away a key to their organizing, right. That is what
Speaker 1: Elon Musk has done. And so when you look at
Speaker 1: it through that lens, you recognize that he is being
Speaker 1: incredibly successful. Because when people like myself right and many
Speaker 1: many other people with millions and millions of followers, decide
Speaker 1: that they no longer want to spend time on this platform,
Speaker 1: that they no longer want to deal with the inundation
Speaker 1: of racism and misogyny that is now part of Elon
Speaker 1: Must's free speech plan, then it ceases to be the
Speaker 1: powerful machine that it could be, and then people need
Speaker 1: to disperse and then figure out where they're going to
Speaker 1: go next to unite. That was the point of Elon
Speaker 1: Must's takeover. So my conversation coming up next with bridget
Speaker 1: Todd delves into that and what it is, if anything,
Speaker 1: that the people can do to hold onto their voice
Speaker 1: and their power. That conversation is coming up next, folks,
Speaker 1: I am very excited to bring to Woke. F bridget Todd,
Speaker 1: who is tech guru extraordinaire, is the host of the
Speaker 1: award winning podcast There Are No Girls on the Internet,
Speaker 1: and of the new pod, which my God couldn't have
Speaker 1: dropped at a better time, The Internet Hate Machine. Bridget
Speaker 1: let me just tell you that first, congrats on all
Speaker 1: of the accolades with There Are No Girls on the Internet.
Speaker 1: It has been It's so wonderful when I see black
Speaker 1: women winning in spaces that we don't normally win in
Speaker 1: and creating room and space for conversations about people that
Speaker 1: look like us that exist in this tech space. So
Speaker 1: I just want to say, like, shout out for that.
Speaker 1: But your new pod comes at a time when the
Speaker 1: billionaire troll Elon Musk has taken control over the world's
Speaker 1: town square. And now all of a sudden, it seems
Speaker 1: over the last several weeks that people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: my Twitter actually is important. It isn't just a social
Speaker 1: media you know platform that it is really a source
Speaker 1: for organizing and activism and journalism. So, you know, before
Speaker 1: we dive in, you know, I want to get a
Speaker 1: sense of, you know, why you started this new pod,
Speaker 1: right and is it and was it provoked by the
Speaker 1: impending you know cell that now has actually happened of Twitter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you for having me and that for that world,
Speaker 1: welcome the podcast. So it was already in the work,
Speaker 1: and because I feel like I could sort of see
Speaker 1: the writing on the wall, I was already you know,
Speaker 1: pitching and thinking about some of the concepts that we
Speaker 1: that we discuss on Internet Hate Machine before Elon officially
Speaker 1: bought Twitter. But I could sort of see the ways
Speaker 1: that our social media platforms were primed or takeover in
Speaker 1: some kind of way, you know, whether it's by bad
Speaker 1: actors and like charlatans and extremists, gamifying conversations and hijacking
Speaker 1: conversations about its sensitive topics or topics that people really
Speaker 1: need to have conversation on, Like I could sort of
Speaker 1: see that happening, and I could sort of see the
Speaker 1: ways that these platforms should be designed and set up
Speaker 1: to have folks really be able to come to them,
Speaker 1: to organize, to connect with one one another, have community,
Speaker 1: and that makes them these these spaces that folks do
Speaker 1: want to you know, hijack and disrupt. So I could
Speaker 1: sort of see the writing on the wall even before
Speaker 1: Elon Musk actually bought Twitter, when we were in production
Speaker 1: for the podcast that that deal actually went through. So
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, perfect timing for show,
Speaker 1: right right. You know, It's just I think that for
Speaker 1: far too long, the folks have said that, you know,
Speaker 1: Twitter is toxic. Twitter is a toxic space, and you know,
Speaker 1: and and there were there had been moments where major
Speaker 1: things would happen. You profiled one of them, um on
Speaker 1: the Internet hate machine, Leslie Jones, and you you profile
Speaker 1: and and I want to allow you to the space
Speaker 1: to tell the Willkaf audience about exactly that, which I'm
Speaker 1: sure many you know, everyone remembers. But Leslie Jones, you
Speaker 1: know SNL, big huge star comedian had Ghostbusters coming out,
Speaker 1: and she had been one of those people that were
Speaker 1: using Twitter in a way that was enjoyable, right, Like,
Speaker 1: we all wanted to follow her because, you know, her
Speaker 1: commentary was fun and funny, and we felt like we
Speaker 1: were in real lifetime of like an SNL skit, right
Speaker 1: whenever she would cover sporting events or you know, just
Speaker 1: do something fun and it kind of you know, her
Speaker 1: presence at that time reminded us of like the good
Speaker 1: naturedness of what it meant to build social media platforms.
Speaker 1: Then here comes along this motherfucker, Milo, the white supremicist
Speaker 1: I never pronounced his last name, right, and I don't
Speaker 1: ever care about pronouncing his last name right, comes along
Speaker 1: and creates an entire campaign to target her for no
Speaker 1: other reason than the fact that she's black. She's a
Speaker 1: black woman who is famous and wealthy, and you know,
Speaker 1: so I just want you to go into using her
Speaker 1: story as kind of the kind of anchor story as
Speaker 1: to what regular people, regular you know, folks that happened
Speaker 1: to be from marginalized communities have the experience at the
Speaker 1: hands of white supremas, of misogynists, of these horrible trolls.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you put it that way. I
Speaker 1: think that so often people hear the story of what
Speaker 1: happened with Leslie Jones on Twitter and say, well, she's
Speaker 1: a big star, she's a celebrity who cares, Like, what
Speaker 1: does this have to do with anything? But that's exactly
Speaker 1: the point that I posited in the episode about her,
Speaker 1: which is that Leslie Jones was someone who was a
Speaker 1: as you said, like a Twitter super user. Everyone loved
Speaker 1: the way that Leslie Jones tweeted. She was got global
Speaker 1: fame for her hilarious live tweeting of the Olympics that year,
Speaker 1: and she was like beloved by Twitter and frankly got
Speaker 1: Twitter a lot of positive attention. Right. And so if
Speaker 1: someone who is this big celebrity, wealthy and also like
Speaker 1: a Twitter super user, who is like beloved by Twitter,
Speaker 1: if they could be harassed and abused in these ways
Speaker 1: and in ways that are criminal. Right. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: just her being you know, people saying mean things to
Speaker 1: her on Twitter. They hacked her website and and and
Speaker 1: put intimate photos of her on her website, which is
Speaker 1: which is a crime, you know. So it's it's these
Speaker 1: ways that are that are go so far beyond people
Speaker 1: saying mean things to her. But if someone is famous
Speaker 1: and well connected as Leslie Jones, that can happen to
Speaker 1: her and people can say, big deal. What does that
Speaker 1: mean for the rest of us? What does that mean
Speaker 1: for all the other black women and girls out there
Speaker 1: who are using social media platforms and are also being
Speaker 1: targeted for this kind of harassment or LGBTQ folks who
Speaker 1: are being targeted for this kind of harassment. And so
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that that's how you put it. I
Speaker 1: also think that the story of Leslie Jones being harassed
Speaker 1: and a targeted harassment campaign by Milo, it actually doesn't
Speaker 1: start with Milo. It starts with Steve Bannon, because Steve
Speaker 1: bann was really one of the first people to identify
Speaker 1: this the powerful force of like disaffected white male gamers
Speaker 1: and say like, oh, this is a force that we
Speaker 1: can really like weaponize. And it was him who really
Speaker 1: empowered Milo at the time, working for Breitbart, his his
Speaker 1: publication to you know, separ had these kinds of attacks,
Speaker 1: and so again like it's so it's it's wild to
Speaker 1: me how how often this gets sort of sidelined as
Speaker 1: a celebrity story when like Steve bannam went on to
Speaker 1: be in the White House, right, So like, obviously this
Speaker 1: is a story that has deeper roots than just something
Speaker 1: bad happening to a celebrity on the internet. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think that that's right, And I'm so glad that
Speaker 1: you lifted that up on your episode, because what I
Speaker 1: think is is becomes really problematic is when we're being
Speaker 1: disingenuous about the actual problem. And the problem here isn't
Speaker 1: just you know, a bunch of white guys that are
Speaker 1: sitting behind a computer screen that you know, never go
Speaker 1: outside and are just using their trolling as a way
Speaker 1: to you know, to lift up their masculinity. That this
Speaker 1: is actually tied to a larger political movement that we
Speaker 1: have seen that has been wept an eye. Whereas where Twitter,
Speaker 1: for instance, in particular, of all the platforms, has been
Speaker 1: weaponized um by really fragile white men such as Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: such as Elon Musk m and others who get on
Speaker 1: there are their grievances, stir up their and their inseell
Speaker 1: you know, uh bots to target and to shut down discourse.
Speaker 1: And so one of the questions that I want to
Speaker 1: ask to you is the past couple of weeks that
Speaker 1: I have gone on you know, to your former your
Speaker 1: former outlet to MSNBC and you know, and been and
Speaker 1: we're talking about Elon Musk and they're like, oh, Danielle,
Speaker 1: so you know, he's a spectacular failure and all of
Speaker 1: these things. And I said, what is it that makes
Speaker 1: you all think that he's failing? Right? And so my question,
Speaker 1: my question to you is, you know, as you're watching
Speaker 1: daily the headlines and following the headlines about Twitter, about
Speaker 1: advertisers pulling out, about you know, different attack tweets that
Speaker 1: Musk is putting out targeting you know, whether it's a
Speaker 1: representative Alexandria Cassio Cortez or others, what do you make
Speaker 1: of the narrative that is being spun around what he
Speaker 1: is doing. Yeah, that's such a great question. I think
Speaker 1: that that idea that oh, this must be like can
Speaker 1: you believe this spectacular failure? I do think that that
Speaker 1: in part is rooted in this idea that we need
Speaker 1: to challenge that a white guy who's a billionaire is
Speaker 1: automatically a co genius. Musk is a genius. I also
Speaker 1: think I agree with you. I think that the reason
Speaker 1: why we see Twitter specifically as this battle ground for
Speaker 1: who can have a voice, and who can have power
Speaker 1: is because people who are traditionally marginalized. Twitter is our
Speaker 1: is our domain, like we have been able even we
Speaker 1: have been able to build platforms and voices for ourselves
Speaker 1: using Twitter when other, you know, more traditional outlets and
Speaker 1: places have not always helped us amplify our voices. And
Speaker 1: so I think Elon Musk sees that like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is a place where black folks, brown folks, women, queer
Speaker 1: folks are able to build up a voice that can
Speaker 1: sometimes even challenge traditional power structures, right things like meet
Speaker 1: to you, where you can start a hashtag and have
Speaker 1: that be something that actually allows for accountability from power structures.
Speaker 1: I think that Elon Musk wants to cozy up with
Speaker 1: extremist right wing types, and part of that as being
Speaker 1: is dismantling Twitter's power that marginalized people can use. And
Speaker 1: so if you chip away at that power, if you
Speaker 1: if you make it a place where you know, the
Speaker 1: kinds of people who are like creating and shapers of
Speaker 1: discourse aren't really there so much, if you make it
Speaker 1: so that like if you do hang out on Twitter,
Speaker 1: your mentions are going to be full of like nazis
Speaker 1: tweeting garbage at you, and this make it a place
Speaker 1: that no one is going to want to hang out.
Speaker 1: I think that is imparcel to how you take away
Speaker 1: some of a platform like Twitter's power. And I think
Speaker 1: it's not surprising that we saw, you know, when Trump
Speaker 1: was deep platformed, the platform that really hurt him the
Speaker 1: hardest was not having Twitter, because I think that Twitter
Speaker 1: is a unique kind of platform where you can really
Speaker 1: get a message out there and get it to travel quickly.
Speaker 1: And I think Elon Musk is trying to tip the
Speaker 1: scales so that more folks on the extremeist side of things,
Speaker 1: on the right wing side of things, have access to
Speaker 1: that power because they're just not as they're just haven't
Speaker 1: been as good at it as we are, I guess.
Speaker 1: And so I think that he is. So when people
Speaker 1: say like, oh, he's really failing, he's really like, you know,
Speaker 1: ruining Twitter, I'm not going to say that's not by design.
Speaker 1: I think that he wants to make it so that
Speaker 1: Twitter is a place where folks like you and I
Speaker 1: aren't gonna want to show up and aren't gonna want
Speaker 1: to be able to build up power and voices on
Speaker 1: a platform do you think that government, though Bridget failed
Speaker 1: here by not making Twitter a public utility? Do you
Speaker 1: think that because we have essentially and I'll be super
Speaker 1: agist and not care optinagarians who don't actually understand how
Speaker 1: social media in a lot of ways works, do you
Speaker 1: think that there has been missed opportunities where they would
Speaker 1: bring in, you know, Mark Zuckerberg and scold him with
Speaker 1: regard to allowing misinformation whether it was about covid or
Speaker 1: the twenty sixteen election, to fester on Facebook and depress
Speaker 1: like democratic voices and ads and campaign ads and what
Speaker 1: have you. They bring them in to chastise them, but
Speaker 1: don't really understand how like how this platform is used.
Speaker 1: So do you think that government and has missed an
Speaker 1: opportunity here? Yes, this is just I mean, this is
Speaker 1: my opinion. So speaking for myself, I do think that
Speaker 1: government has missed an opportunity, and I think it's really
Speaker 1: I think that we're really seeing the impact of that.
Speaker 1: I think that when listen, when your community wants to
Speaker 1: get information out there about an emergency, they don't go
Speaker 1: to Facebook, they don't go to Instagram, they don't go
Speaker 1: in a snapchat, they go to Twitter, Right, so Twitter
Speaker 1: is how most a lot of us get information about
Speaker 1: what's happening in our communities right now. The fact that
Speaker 1: a billionaire could wake up one day and outright by
Speaker 1: that platform essentially on a whim for a laugh, and
Speaker 1: you know, do what he's done to it is a
Speaker 1: real problem. I think that you're exactly right. It pains
Speaker 1: me when I see, you know, people who I know
Speaker 1: did not who are not digital natives, who did not
Speaker 1: grow up on law, who don't know the way that
Speaker 1: the Internet can really impact our real lived experiences, kind
Speaker 1: of dropping the ball when it comes to regulating and
Speaker 1: making sure that these platforms are actually able to be
Speaker 1: the kind of public utilities that we know that is
Speaker 1: the purpose that they serve in our actual lives. The
Speaker 1: fact that the fact that we're having this conversation after
Speaker 1: the fact really does tell me that our elected officials
Speaker 1: have really failed us and dropped the ball. And frankly,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I see it getting better. You know,
Speaker 1: I've the hearings that you were just describing, like I've
Speaker 1: solved some elected official chastising Mark Zuckerberg, and he was like,
Speaker 1: will you commit to ending finn stuff? And Mark Zuckerberg
Speaker 1: was like, what are you talking about? Right? Like, I
Speaker 1: think it's I think it's also a testament to the
Speaker 1: fact that we need younger folks elected officials. We need
Speaker 1: to the ones who aren't younger folks need to have
Speaker 1: more younger folks in their circles that they're actually listening to,
Speaker 1: because we've got people making legislation about technology that frankly,
Speaker 1: I wonder if they truly really understand the impact of
Speaker 1: that technology. No. And I think you know what was
Speaker 1: funny is that during the Obama years, I think that
Speaker 1: people really took for granted how how much Obama understood
Speaker 1: about how the world works, but also how to use,
Speaker 1: how to utilize technology. He created the Chief Technology Officer.
Speaker 1: He courted people from Silicon Valley to come in as
Speaker 1: if it were they were doing their public service right here.
Speaker 1: Don't take that, you know, half a million dollar job
Speaker 1: at Google, come and work for the government for scraps,
Speaker 1: but you're going to be doing something good for America.
Speaker 1: Because he understood that we needed really bright, sharp minds
Speaker 1: to catapult us into the future. And I'm not quite
Speaker 1: sure that that energy that thinking, even with this administration
Speaker 1: being a democratic administration, gets that, and so I wonder
Speaker 1: what you think, bridget are the implications then moving forward,
Speaker 1: when we have billionaires that are legitimately playing monopoly with
Speaker 1: our lives and our voices, and then have a government
Speaker 1: that is ineffectual in their ability to stop that from happening.
Speaker 1: What does this look like down the road? What does
Speaker 1: the internet, this hate machine that it has become, as
Speaker 1: you cleverly have titled your pod, what does it look
Speaker 1: like down the road a couple of years from now? Oh,
Speaker 1: recipe for disaster. Like I hate to put it like that,
Speaker 1: but absolute recipe for disaster. And I think even looking
Speaker 1: at the Biden administration, there are some things that I'll
Speaker 1: say like, oh, good job doing this or that, but
Speaker 1: it's it often feels like too little, too late, like
Speaker 1: we're playing catchup on on issue right that we has
Speaker 1: gotten so far, you know, far afield. And so I
Speaker 1: think unless you have elected officials who truly understand what's
Speaker 1: happening and are already and willing to act in meaningful ways,
Speaker 1: I think it's a recipe for disaster. I really, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I especially look at like the younger generation,
Speaker 1: so many of them, what it means to show up
Speaker 1: as like an activist or somebody with a voice, or
Speaker 1: somebody who was really civically engaged means showing up online, right,
Speaker 1: And so if our online platforms are not places where
Speaker 1: they can where they can all do that meaningfully and safely,
Speaker 1: where whether you're a black woman or a white man,
Speaker 1: and you can meaningfully show up and like make your
Speaker 1: wayte heard and be civically engaged online. If our platforms
Speaker 1: aren't places where that's possible, what do you think the
Speaker 1: next generation of like elected officials or people who are
Speaker 1: physically engaged is going to look like we're leaving an
Speaker 1: incredibly unequal, unfair playing field for the next generation. And
Speaker 1: I think unless we do something meaningful to change that,
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not. I'm concerned about what it's going
Speaker 1: to look like down the road. What are your hopes then,
Speaker 1: bridget for your new pod and what you hope to
Speaker 1: bring or highlight to your audiences about this really important space, right,
Speaker 1: Like I think that you know, for at the beginning
Speaker 1: the advent of the Internet, it was considered like this
Speaker 1: kind of fun thing, right, you know, chat rooms and
Speaker 1: websites and blogs and all of these, you know, it's
Speaker 1: feeling it literally feels like, you know, little house on
Speaker 1: the Prairie times when you know from how it started
Speaker 1: compare to like where we are right now. But where
Speaker 1: we're headed seems so bleak and stark. And I think
Speaker 1: that you know, you raise such good alarms and questions.
Speaker 1: You know, what are you hoping that people take from
Speaker 1: your pod? Yeah, I'm so glad that you asked. The
Speaker 1: biggest one is probably that the state and the well
Speaker 1: being and the health of our internet is connected to
Speaker 1: of that health of our democracy writ large. And so
Speaker 1: these are not issues that are just quote happening online
Speaker 1: or things happening on Twitter. You can't tell someone just
Speaker 1: just turn off your computer. It'll be fine. When all
Speaker 1: of us are not meaningly able to show up on
Speaker 1: our our digital communications platforms and make our voices heard
Speaker 1: and you know, express ourselves, that means that that is
Speaker 1: the connected to the health and well being of our democracy,
Speaker 1: and that you know, folks are not going to show
Speaker 1: up online and sort of like your voice their opinion
Speaker 1: about politics or our democracy. Folks are going to be
Speaker 1: We've already seen. The research is very clear women and
Speaker 1: women of color and black women especially are much less
Speaker 1: likely to do things like run for office when they
Speaker 1: know that they can be harassed online just for trying
Speaker 1: to serve their communities, right, and so we can't have
Speaker 1: a representative democracy. If that's the case, we can't have
Speaker 1: a fully functioning democracy. And the health and well being
Speaker 1: of our democracy is innately tied to the way that
Speaker 1: women and women of color, and black women specifically are
Speaker 1: able to show up online. If we're not able to
Speaker 1: show up, then we don't have a healthy democracy. The two,
Speaker 1: in my mind, are very much connected. What do you think?
Speaker 1: Last question for you, like, what do our elected officials? Again,
Speaker 1: because these are the overseers, the ones that we place
Speaker 1: the importance of representing our voices and our needs. What
Speaker 1: do they need to understand one coming out of this
Speaker 1: midterm election, going into a presidential election where the Internet
Speaker 1: is like the most critical infrastructure in order to get
Speaker 1: out information to as many people as possible. I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: I believe in door knocking and I believe in phone calls,
Speaker 1: but we know that tweets and ads and campaign videos,
Speaker 1: the ability to go viral is what allows people to
Speaker 1: have a fighting chance in our democracy. Right, So what
Speaker 1: do you what would your advice, your message, your warning
Speaker 1: be to them. Yeah, I would say, I mean, what
Speaker 1: a good question first and the foremost, I take it seriously.
Speaker 1: I do think that we're still We're coming out of
Speaker 1: it a little bit, but I do think that we're
Speaker 1: still in a place where for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: like what happens on the internet is not real life,
Speaker 1: and we need to really get away from that notion
Speaker 1: because the internet and real life are one and the
Speaker 1: same in twenty twenty two, and I would say, really
Speaker 1: start being able to speak to it when a woman
Speaker 1: of color or a black woman is harassed or abuse
Speaker 1: on the internet, right, Like case and point, when I
Speaker 1: remember when Kamala Harris was first being talked about as
Speaker 1: Biden's VP pick, I really I was obviously excited about that,
Speaker 1: but I was a little disheartened to see that there
Speaker 1: weren't a lot of folks in the administration who were
Speaker 1: willing to openly talk about the kinds of harassment, like racist,
Speaker 1: sis harassment that she was going to face, right, and
Speaker 1: so they just say like, oh, well, we want to
Speaker 1: support her, like we like her leadership this and that
Speaker 1: talk openly about it, normalize talking openly about the reality
Speaker 1: that you are setting Black women up to face when
Speaker 1: you are supporting their leadership. Same thing with Katanti Brown Jackson.
Speaker 1: I was a little again, a little disheartened to see
Speaker 1: the kinds of obvious racialized, sexualized, gendered disinformation, misinformation and
Speaker 1: harassment that she was facing online. I was a little
Speaker 1: sad to see that folks in the administration weren't calling
Speaker 1: it out the way that they should have. And so
Speaker 1: I would say, first and foremost, start talking about it.
Speaker 1: Don't dance around it, don't use ethemisms, call it out
Speaker 1: directly and normalize it. Normalize calling it out, and normalize
Speaker 1: saying like, we're not going to tolerate this, we see
Speaker 1: what it is. Your little dog whistles online aren't going
Speaker 1: to work. We're not going to stand here and allow
Speaker 1: for racist, sexist harassment of our elected officials. And so
Speaker 1: I think we're not even there yet. We're still in
Speaker 1: a place where people they don't openly acknowledge it. It's
Speaker 1: just like this thing that we all have to see
Speaker 1: happening and do not have verbalized in a real way. Well,
Speaker 1: Bridget I just you know, I continue to commend you
Speaker 1: for the work that you do in this tech space
Speaker 1: to elevate the issues that are facing marginalized communities to
Speaker 1: give voice and to the needs right and also to
Speaker 1: just engage more women, communities of color, queer people to
Speaker 1: get involved and to take up space in this digital space. Folks.
Speaker 1: The pod is called the Internet Hate Machine and you
Speaker 1: must check it out wherever you get your podcasts. Bridget,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for making the time for woke
Speaker 1: aff We appreciate you. Oh, I appreciate you so much,
Speaker 1: and thank you for all that you do, and thank
Speaker 1: you for your You have a very engaged audience that
Speaker 1: you've built, so thank thanks all around. Thank you. That
Speaker 1: is it for me today, dear friends, Aunt woke f
Speaker 1: as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.