BIG TECH Watch Commentary by Richard N. Madden, April 26, 2022 “Don’t be evil” is Google’s corporate motto and ostensibly the driving ethos behind the company’s decisions since its inception in the early 2000s. However, Google has been quietly distancing itself from this promise as the reality of its power over the world becomes too […]
Special to WorldTribune, December 9, 2021 BIG TECH Watch By Richard N. Madden On Oct. 28, the (in-)famous thumbs-up logo on the sign at 1 Hacker Way was replaced with a new infinity symbol, signifying the completion of Facebook’s rebranding to “Meta Inc.” “We just announced that we’re making a fundamental change to our company,” […]
Special to WorldTribune, November 15, 2021 BIG TECH Watch By Richard N. Madden Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the latest gold rush spawned from the world’s digital transformation. They’ve lit a fire under monetary systems across the globe and challenged our understanding of wealth and value. Individuals, corporations and governments alike have all seemingly been […]
Special to WorldTribune, October 25, 2021 BIG TECH Watch By Richard N. Madden [Editor’s Note: Wall Street Journal’s generally conservative Editor at Large Gerard Baker termed Donald Trump “an ominous threat to the health of the republic” in an Oct. 25 column that failed to remind readers that Trump has been silenced by Big Tech […]
Special to WorldTribune, September 27, 2021 BIG TECH Watch Commentary by Richard N. Madden Despite owning the greatest share of wealth ever known to humanity, Big Tech struggles with fair and effective content moderation. There is bipartisan agreement in the United States that it is failing. The implications are global and so enormous as to […]
Special to WorldTribune, September 9, 2021 BIG TECH Watch By Richard N. Madden The invention of the solid-state transistor in the 1950s transformed the electronics and computing industries, and later, human society as a whole. The innovation and refining within the semiconductor manufacturing process drove the so-called “Third Industrial Revolution” from the 1950s to the […]
Special to WorldTribune, July 26, 2021 BIG TECH Watch By Richard N. Madden This month, an ongoing investigation revealed that governments across the world have been utilizing spyware called *Pegasus* to track, monitor and suppress journalists and political opponents through their smartphones. Dubbed the “Project Pegasus Revelations”, it was found that tens of thousands of […]
Special to WorldTribune, July 21, 2021 BIG TECH Watch By Richard N. Madden Am I being tracked online? Even with the most sophisticated VPN, Ad-Block and privacy browser extensions, the answer is still most likely: “Yes.” Internet privacy has been the central issue concerning digital rights in the last decade as Internet service companies transition […]
Analysis by WorldTribune, June 2, 2021 Facebook is under fire for reversing its policy on censoring posts relating to the origins of Covid-19. But does anyone expect this entity, more powerful than nations, to be held to account? Meanwhile, this mass communications colossus continues to micromanage the public’s access to information along increasingly narrow, ideological […]