Patrick Fowles, Business affairs editor for The Economist, dives into the controversial bans on social media that raise questions about free speech and tech power, specifically spotlighting the Trump ban. Sasha Nauta, Public policy editor, discusses the evolution of girlhood, emphasizing the positive shifts and ongoing challenges due to the pandemic and societal pressure. They also touch on the struggle to combat snake bite fatalities with innovative science and potentially universal antidotes.
Moves to shutter the president’s accounts and to crimp corners of the internet given to right-wing extremism raise thorny questions, both about free speech and social-media firms’ business models. Our public-policy editor takes a broad look at girlhood: how women’s adolescence has changed for the better but is challenged mightily by covid-19. And science’s bid to save more snake-bite victims’ lives.