After the Info-Apocalypse (AA) (Part 1) – Tech the Untamed

The Information Apocalypse series examined the decline of trust and truth in American Institutions over the past several years, from the effects on news and information but more critically, on ideas and values. The series explored the role of leaders in a polemicized society, and the necessity for reliance on logic, common sense and rejecting the rush to judgment that has become society’s norm. In the emerging post-Info-Apocalypse era, the main conflict seems to be one of control as increasing public awareness of the powerful role of technology in our lives and its effects as both an unwitting accelerant in spreading misinformation and as a nascent arbiter of communication norms and values.

After the Info-Apocalypse examines the issues with society’s biggest elephant in the room – ‘Big Tech’ (Alphabet, Google, Facebook (now Meta) and Apple) companies and their exercise of control over consumer data and privacy, their ability to manipulate information platforms and their massive power in the global marketplace. This series will explore society’s burgeoning response to Big Tech – whether through government regulation, court challenges from companies demanding a level playing field, or regulatory attempts to hold the behemoths accountable, whether in terms of response to digital crime, or in curbing their influence on national security, society, and politics and culture.