We Users Should Play a Role in Socializing These Platforms

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We users are a big part of the work force for these companies. Creativity were part of this process too. Without us, there's no web sigts for google to index or posts for facebook to curate. We should realize we're not going to figure it out perfectly on our first try but that could be beneficial too. These scum bags shouldn't be in charge. Bill gates shouldn't be deciding gets their funding get malaria. There's no reason for us to keep deferring to these ruling elites and telling them how they're going to run the society. They end up gutting public services so they can have tax cuts now when some pandemic comes along which is tiny and

Paris Marx is joined by Rob Larson to discuss how tech billionaires use philanthropy to massage their images, how they're creating a world that leaves nearly everyone else worse off, and how we need to respond with an online socialism to bring tech platforms under worker control.

Rob Larson is the author of “Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley” and an economics professor at Tacoma Community College. He also recently wrote about how billionaire-funded philanthropy is a public-relations scam for Jacobin and how the tech platforms are on their best behavior during COVID-19 for Current Affairs. Follow Rob on Twitter as @IronicProfessor.

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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

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