Lessons from Big Tobacco for Big Tech

Here is something you’re probably tired of hearing: Big Tech is responsible for a bottomless brunch of societal harms. And they are not being held accountable. Right now it feels as though we hear constantly about laws, regulation, courts. But none of it is effective in litigating against Big Tech.

In our latest podcast series Exhibit X, we’re looking at how the tides might finally be turning. Legal accountability could be around the corner, but only if a few things happen first.

To start, we look back to 1964. When Big Tobacco was winning the ‘try your best to profit from harm’ race. Research showed cigarettes were addictive and also caused cancer — and yet the industry evaded accountability for decades.

In this episode we ask questions like:

• Why wasn’t a report in 1964 showing cigarettes are addictive and cause cancer enough to transform the industry?
• What can we learn about corporate capture of research on tobacco?
• How did academia and experts shape the outcomes of court cases?

Prathm Juneja was Alix’s co-host for this episode. He is a PhD Candidate in Social Data Science at the Oxford Internet Institute Working at the intersection of academia, industry, and government on technology, innovation, and policy.

Further reading

• C-SPAN: Tobacco Settlement
•  The Cigarette Papers - Full Online Version
• The Truth Tobacco Industry Documents
•  Big Tobacco and the Historians
•  Tobacco Litigation Documents
•  A Tobacco Whistle-Blower's Life Is Transformed
• Inventing Conflicts of Interest: A History of Tobacco Industry Tactics
•  Tobacco Industry Research Committee
• Experts Debating Tobacco Addiction