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On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the midterm elections coming up in November and whether Silicon Valley companies are ready for the deluge of disinformation—whether from Russia, Macedonia, or right here in the U.S.
The hosts are joined by Paige Panter, a product manager in Silicon Valley who is also a volunteer with the Tech Workers Coalition, a group that’s been active since 2014 but more recently has acted as a kind of communications hub for people who work in the technology industry to organize to make demands of their employers. They discuss this recent wave of tech-employee activism, how it got started, and what could come down the line.
Stories discussed on the show:
- The New York Times: Top Tech Companies Met With Intelligence Officials to Discuss Midterms
- Wired: Apple Tries to Avoid Facebook’s Mistakes With 2018 Midterms
- Slate: Silicon Valley CEOs Know What to Say About Trump. Their Workers Are Forcing Them to Do Something About Trump.
- Bloomberg: Union Power Is Putting Pressure on Silicon Valley’s Tech Giants
- Defense One: Google’s Withdrawal From Pentagon A.I. Project Risks U.S. Lives, Says Work
Don’t Close My Tabs
- The New York Times: San Francisco Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work.
- San Francisco Chronicle: Silicon Valley Bus Drivers Sleep in Parking Lots. They May Have to Make Way for Development.
- Wired: How a Child Moves Through a Broken Immigration System
Podcast production by Max Jacobs.
If Then plugs:
You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com.
If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.
