The Future of Free Speech & Social Media’s Role in War with Jason Kapadia - Episode 20
Will your speech be truly free with Twitter’s future plans?
Since Elon Musk confirmed his intention to buy the social media giant, there are so many questions around the implications of this deal on free speech, control, and billionaires’ influence.
Breaking this down with me this week on Disconnected is a friend of the show - Jason Kapadia (previously on Episode 2) - as we dive into Twitter’s future, the effects of social media on war, tracking tech for parents, and Snap’s new drone…
This episode of Disconnected covers:
The true motivations behind Elon’s scheduled Twitter takeover
Where the line could be drawn on ‘free speech’
Social media’s impact on war
Tracking tech for parents to keep tabs on their children
Snap’s new flying selfie ‘drone’
Episode Highlights:
“Elon believes that Twitter is like the world's town square. But even in a town square, not all speech is considered free speech and protected. In the US, there are nine categories of speech that aren't protected.” - 7:15 - Jason Kapadia
“Twitter is a platform built on algorithms. If the deal does go through, and Elon is able to open source these algorithms, Twitter’s core will effectively belong to everyone. The community will be able to take a look under the hood at how it operates, and be able to suggest updates and fixes to make it more fair. That essentially is the ideals of a democracy.” - 12:30 - Jason Kapadia
“When you go to the supermarket there’s literally like five conglomerates, five large organisations that own 80% of those products in the supermarket. Our lives are already controlled by a very small number of entities, so I don't mind which billionaire buys what. This is the world we live in. ” - 24:05 - Jag Sharma
“If we look at wars fought in the decades past, it's only the winners that get to tell most of the tales. With social media you have these live streams of what's happening, people have to make their own judgement.” - 31:30 - Jason Kapadia
“Find My Friends isn't even the market leader. Live 360 is like Find My Friends on steroids. It enables greater tracking and even notifications when a person is doing certain actions that their parents wouldn't approve. If kids are too young for a smartphone, there's wristwear options; ‘GizmoWatch’ & ‘KIDSnav’ which have built-in GPS trackers & microphones for listening in on what's happening. In a sense, location tracking apps have crept up on us. For some parents, they may seem almost too difficult to resist.” - 35:55 - Jag Sharma
“With these drones, for most people it’s too difficult to pilot. This Snap drone is kind of putting a selfie stick on a drone and making it smart enough to take photos or videos of you doing what you're doing.” - 44:00 - Jason Kapadia
This Week’s Stories:
Tesla customer banned
Can Social Media change the course of a war
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/apr/25/the-big-idea-can-social-media-change-the-course-of-war
Parents tracking their kids all the time
Snapchat's new selfie drone, Pixy
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61269912
Links & references:
Jason Kapadia:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkapadia/
https://www.instagram.com/jasonkapadia/
London Live Bus Countdown by Mobicia
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mobicia-ltd/about/
https://www.instagram.com/londonbusapp/
Jag Sharma: