LFI Course Materials 4/Week eight

Week 8: The Global Power of Big Tech Companies

• September 10th 9 - 11 Pacific/12 - 2 Eastern Zoom https://zoom.us/j/9129428892

Overview

Big Tech rules our lives, and surveillance is part of their business model. These companies know about us, but what do we know about them? What are their beliefs? How do they influence global politics? What relationships do they have with law enforcement and intelligence agencies? Knowing Big Tech is the first step to taking our power back from them. This week, we'll hear from Rob Larson, author of Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley, and we'll talk about the big business of big data.

Readings

• Excerpt from Surveillance Valley: https://thebaffler.com/latest/oakland-surveillance-levine
• YouTube, the Great Radicalizer: (unpaywalled copy) https://libraryfreedom.chat/t/week-8-nyt-article-un-pay-walled-youtube-the-great-radicalizer/731
• Facebook Is Setting Fire to America: https://theweek.com/articles/935148/facebook-setting-fire-america
• Tech Workers vs the Pentagon: https://jacobinmag.com/2018/06/google-project-maven-military-tech-workers
• Are We Already Living In A Tech Dystopia?: https://gizmodo.com/are-we-already-living-in-a-tech-dystopia-1844824718
• 15 Months of Fresh Hell Inside Facebook: https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-15-months-of-fresh-hell/

Guest lecturer

Rob Larson, author of Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley

Discussion

• What is the relationship between privacy and the power of these companies?
• What interventions are possible to take our power back from Big Tech?

Tasks

• Lecture, discussion forum, and final project work.