Is Big Tech Imploding? Cybersecurity and Content Moderation

Big Tech, honey, are you doing okay?

Whether we like it or not, large technology platforms and the for-profit institutions that make them are here to stay in our society and economy. Governments are starting to craft often-overlapping regulations to try and fix the problems that come up, but instead of looking at issues one by one, let's look at these organizations as a whole - fundamentally “grow fast and break things” companies who somehow ended up in shouldering a lot of our national security, growing the international economy, and protecting values that underpin our Western society. How well does big tech help or hinder our security, privacy, and social fabric, and how will that change as the economy slows down?

Show notes:

• Twitter:
  • Content moderation & security: Mudge whistleblower complaint
    • https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/13/twitter-whistleblower-mudge-congress/
  • Deplatforming vs. Echo chambers
    • https://www.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/2021/01/31/the-de-platforming-debate-balancing-concerns-over-online-extremism-with-free-speech/
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V_sEqfIL9Q
    • https://www.axios.com/2021/12/06/conservative-social-media-crypto-publishing-internet
  • Staffing at Twitter
    • https://www.reuters.com/technology/after-elon-musks-ultimatum-twitter-employees-start-exiting-2022-11-18/
• Radioshack tries to sell off user data
  • https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/03/26/bankrupt-radioshack-wants-to-sell-off-user-data-but-the-bigger-risk-is-if-a-facebook-or-google-goes-bust/
• Uber:
  • Uber CISO court case: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3676078/what-the-uber-verdict-means-to-cisos-youre-probably-not-going-to-jail.html
    
• Facebook / Meta:
  • Advisory board / election issues
    • https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/05/world/meanwhile-in-america-oct-6-intl
  • Body issues re: instagram
    • https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043194385/whistleblowers-testimony-facebook-instagram
• Overlapping foreign government action + industrial policy
  • State overlapping privacy laws
    • https://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/state-laws-related-to-internet-privacy.aspx
      
  • China data privacy laws / increased balkanization of internet
    • https://www.ey.com/en_kw/forensic-integrity-services/how-chinas-data-privacy-and-security-rules-could-impact-your-business
      
  • Google’s Operation Aurora: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=przDcQe6n5o
• Cybersecurity in a technology recession (cyber security as compliance)
  • Google being told to cut costs by VC
    • https://www.businessinsider.com/google-layoffs-cost-cutting-analyst-2022-11
      
  • Benefits of security / private attribution, compliance for government contracts
    • https://www.securityweek.com/google-wins-lawsuit-against-glupteba-botnet-operators
• FTX
  • https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2022/11/21/ftx-hacker-moved-nearly-200-million-of-ether-to-different-wallets/
  • ...