Crypto Is Spending Millions to Sway the US Election w/ Molly White

08/22/24 • 57 min

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Paris Marx is joined by Molly White to discuss why the crypto industry is spending millions on this election cycle and Coinbase’s potential breach of election finance law.
Molly White writes the Citation Needed newsletter. She is the creator of Web3 Is Going Just Great and Follow the Crypto.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:

Molly wrote about the Coinbase campaign finance violation and Donald Trump’s Bitcoin conference speech in her newsletter.
Paris wrote about some of the concerns about Kamala Harris’ stance on tech.
Fairshake spent $10 million on attacks ads against Katie Porter in California. It spent millions more targeting Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.
The crypto industry hates SEC head Gary Gensler, who is leading the regulatory effort against cryptocurrency.

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Molly wrote about the Coinbase campaign finance violation and Donald Trump’s Bitcoin conference speech in her newsletter.
Paris wrote about some of the concerns about Kamala Harris’ stance on tech.
Fairshake spent $10 million on attacks ads against Katie Porter in California. It spent millions more targeting Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.
The crypto industry hates SEC head Gary Gensler, who is leading the regulatory effort against cryptocurrency.

Support the show

Previous Episode

Is Social Media Fueling Far-Right Riots? w/ Hussein Kesvani

Paris Marx is joined by Hussein Kesvani to discuss the far-right attacks that happened after the Southport stabbing in the UK and how larger structural issues in media, politics, and tech laid the groundwork for violence against visible minorities.
Hussein Kesvani is a co-host of Trashfuture and Ten Thousand Posts.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:

The stabbing in Southport resulted in the deaths of three children and injuries to eight children and two adults.
After days of far-right attacks, there were large anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstrations across the UK.
Some fascists attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, but in places like Bristol, locals started defending the hotels.
In 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell delivered the “rivers of blood” speech.
Elon Musk has been sharing a series of incendiary posts and false information that have helped fuel these attacks.
The billionaire’s changes to Twitter have helped fuel right-wing misinformation.

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Next Episode

No Tech for Apartheid w/ Mohammad Khatami & Gabi Schubiner

Paris Marx is joined by Mohammad Khatami and Gabi Schubiner to discuss the complicity of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and how tech workers are organizing to stop it.
Mohammad Khatami and Gabi Schubiner are former Google software engineers and organizers with No Tech for Apartheid.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about No Tech for Apartheid from their website. Microsoft workers have also launched No Azure for Apartheid.
Yuval Abraham reported on the Israeli military’s use of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft’s cloud services and AI in Gaza.
Mohammad wrote about being fired by Google in The New Arab.
Gabi refers to JWCC, with is a reference to the Department of Defense Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle.
Google fired 50 workers earlier this year for organizing over its ties to Israel.
The Information reported on how many Arab Americans in tech are scared to speak out in support of Palestinians for fear of retaliation.
In 1970, Polaroid workers under the banner of the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement began the first anti-apartheid boycott of a US company by organizing against their employer’s complicity in South African apartheid.
The IBM Black Workers Alliance was central to the anti-apartheid campaign at that company.