Jason Thacker's Blog, page 12

Explainer: Justice Thomas and the Possibility of Reining in Big Tech

Last week was a particularly busy week for the technology industry at the nation’s highest court. First, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Google’s favor in a decadeslong court battle with Oracle over the use of certain software code to build the Android operating system. Oracle claimed that Google’s use of the code violated federal copyright law. Then, the high court released its decision in the case Biden vs. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. This particular case ...

Explainer: Justice Thomas and the Possibility of Reigning in Big Tech

Last week was a particularly busy week for the technology industry at the nation’s highest court. First, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Google’s favor in a decadeslong court battle with Oracle over the use of certain software code to build the Android operating system. Oracle claimed that Google’s use of the code violated federal copyright law. Then, the high court released its decision in the case Biden vs. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. This particular case ...

Why reading books you disagree with helps you grow

Amidst the constant distractions and shallowness on social media, reading a book can serve as a reprieve from the onslaught of information and as a way to challenge yourself to go deeper than 280 characters. Social media draws us in because it leads us to think we are staying connected with others, keeping up with what is going on around the world, and often takes less concentration than picking up a book. But these tools are constantly discipling us to seek expediency over the long process of l...

Why we need ethics to survive

Often when the secular world speaks of evangelicals, these Christians are caricatured as lacking education, social and historical awareness, and even a realistic understanding of the way the world actually works. In 1957, the esteemed theologian Carl F.H. Henry wrote Christian Personal Ethics to equip the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and to engage the apparent hostility demonstrated by elites toward evangelical thought. Henry wrote this comprehensive account of Christian personal ethics in a ...

David French on social media, free speech, and cultural division

JASON THACKER: David, thanks again for joining us on WeeklyTech. David and I had originally scheduled to record this podcast on January 6th, right as the riots and the assault on the United States Capitol began. Needless to say, our conversation is going to speak directly to the role of social media in this attack but also how we got to this point in society and what to do about it. 

David, to get started, can you tell us a little bit about your book “Divided We Fall” and why you decided to w...

A conversation with David French on social media, free speech, and cultural division

This is a transcription of the WeeklyTech Podcast interview with Dr. David French . Subscribe in your favorite podcast app to get new episodes each Monday morning or listen online.

JASON THACKER: David, thanks again for joining us on WeeklyTech. David and I had originally scheduled to record this podcast on January 6th, right as the riots and the assault on the United States Capitol began. Needless to say, today’s conversation is going to speak directly to the role of social media in this ...

Using Medical Technology as Whole People

In October 2019, my family’s life changed forever. My wife was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymphatic system. Being so young and healthy, we were both in shock when we heard the news. This week, after two rounds of chemotherapy with a recurrence in between, she will undergo a stem cell transplant and high dose chemotherapy which we hope and pray God will use to heal her completely. We have been in and out of hospitals for a few years now and were quarantining even ...

Why privacy matters

Each year on January 28, organizations and governments from around the world come together to highlight Data Privacy Day and raise awareness of the immense challenges to personal privacy in our technologically driven society. Data Privacy Day was originally started by the Council of Europe in 2007 and then two years later, the United States Congress passed two resolutions recognizing January 28 as National Data Privacy Day in the U.S. as well. Increasingly throughout our society, there is a grow...

Should Amazon be able to ban books?

with Josh Wester

Last Sunday afternoon, conservative scholar and president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center Ryan T. Anderson received an online message from a would-be reader that his book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment was no longer available for purchase on Amazon’s website. The 2018 release from Encounter Books had been pulled by Amazon, without any prior notification to the author or publisher, for violating Amazon’s offensive content policy (though it...

Justice and technology

In the aftermath of a tragic event like what took place at the United States Capitol on January 6th, we naturally turn from doomscrolling and longing for answers to a focused quest on pursuing justice for the wrongs committed. Humanity has an innate sense of justice, not solely based on what we believe is right or wrong but more importantly on how God has created us in his image and wired us as his creatures to reflect him. The Bible is clear that injustice is a deep affront to God and his chara...