USC Annenberg Innovation Lab
Jonathan Taplin is director emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab and author of Move Fast and Break Things: How Google, Facebook and Amazon have Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy.
PROFILE
Jonathan Taplin
Guest
FROM Jonathan Taplin
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
How well can a company know us -- and sway us -- through psychographic profiling? Cambridge Analytica developed psychographic profiling through the data it collected on 50 million Facebook users. It’s a strategy that uses people’s “likes” -- and their friends’ ‘likes” -- to learn the most effective ways to reach them, and target them where they’re most vulnerable. Does it actually work?
To the Point
Russian trolls and American thinking When Twitter, Facebook, and Google visited Capitol Hill this week, they got a barrage of criticism from Republicans and Democrats, who accused them of allowing fake news and disinformation from Russia to be disseminated on social media. But the politicians also got a lesson. Russian disinformation is aimed more at creating chaos and discrediting democracy than partisan politics. We hear how fake news from St. Petersburg created real rallies in Houston while proposed solutions illustrate a yawning gap between Washington and Silicon Valley.
To the Point
Is Big Tech on the defensive? Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon have amassed incomparable power over the US economy, political discourse and social interactions. Now they're being targeted as monopolies, which determine -- intentionally or otherwise — not just what we buy but how we think. Both the Left and the Right are now talking Regulation, but is Big Tech insulated by its ubiquitous services, popularity with consumers — and its lobbying power?
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To the Point
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
To the Point
The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?
To the Point
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.
To the Point
Will the Senate write a healthcare bill in secret? While Democrats and Republicans argue White House relations with Russia, another question is being decided behind closed doors: who gets help buying health insurance and who doesn't? We hear how the pros and cons are being shrouded in secrecy.