This Week in Tech (Audio) TWiT 1063: The Year's End - Top Stories of 2025
Dec 22, 2025
Mikah Sargent, a tech journalist known for his insights on consumer technology, joins investigative tech journalist Paris Martineau and security expert Steve Gibson to dissect the ups and downs of 2025. They explore how major stories like the TikTok saga and political tech drama fizzled out. The trio delves into pressing topics like privacy concerns, age verification laws, the explosive growth of AI, and the challenges surrounding generative media. They also highlight the eerie trade-off between convenience and privacy as ISPs monetize user data.
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Judge Headlines By Long-Term Outcomes
- Treat major headlines skeptically and watch for long-term outcomes before assuming policy or security fixes will materialize.
- Invest attention where durable technical or legal changes, not just daily drama, are taking place.
Year Of Big Drama, Little Change
- Many major 2025 tech dramas (TikTok, DOGE, political tech fights) generated huge noise but often produced little lasting change.
- The year taught that hype and political theatre can consume attention without solving underlying policy or security problems.
The TikTok Deal That Kept ByteDance Power
- Leo recounts the long TikTok saga ending with ByteDance keeping tech while U.S. investors take ownership stakes.
- He frames the deal as a year of dithering that ultimately changed little about control and moderation.