The internet is rising up to help us in a way that it hasn't ever before. But there's actually this battle for its soul that's now going on, and I worry we're going to lose it. This Chinese model of authoritarianism and central control of information would be nice if the Western government started to do the same thing. Picking this off seems so stupid because I don't want to give up liberalism. It was going to erupt regardless where we're at, but what failed in China was the lack of information. The one thing about liberalism that's worked well in all this crisis is like you said, it's been Twitter.
Ben and James discuss masks and Twitter’s decision to delete tweets about COVID-19.
Links
- Zeynep Tufekci: Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired — The New York Times
- Ben Thompson: Unmasking Twitter — Stratechery
- Ben Thompson: Compaq and Coronavirus — Stratechery
- Ben Thompson: Zero Trust Information — Stratechery
- China’s Decision to Leave Asymptomatic Patients off Coronavirus Infection Tally Sparks Debate — Caixin
- Ben Thompson: Apple’s Organizational Crossroads — Stratechery
- Ben Thompson: Books and Blogs — Stratechery
- Why It’s So Freaking Hard To Make A Good COVID-19 Model — FiveThirtyEight
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