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Siva Vaidhyanathan

Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018).

January 2024

  • ‘Apple began selling a personal computer that would change how we think about computing technologies … ’

    Forty years ago Apple debuted a computer that changed our world, for good or ill

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    In many ways, the long 21st century began when Apple launched the Macintosh with its ‘1984’ Super Bowl ad

September 2023

  • ‘Whims are the operative word. There is no theory of Musk. He has no deep, thought-through principles and predilections.’

    Elon Musk is a lesson in the dangers of unchecked corporate leaders

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    When rich people convince themselves that they’re rich because they’re smart – instead of lucky and ruthless – they misapply their talents to areas beyond their expertise

July 2023

  • FILES-BELGIUM-US-TECH-THREADS-MUSK-ZUCKERBERG<br>(FILES) Founder and CEO of US online social media and social networking service Facebook Mark Zuckerberg reacts upon his arrival for a meeting with European Commission vice-president in charge for Values and Transparency, in Brussels, on February 17, 2020. After years of bad press and scandal, Mark Zuckerberg is seeing his reputation spruced up in the fickle world of tech, largely thanks to the increasingly unpredictable behavior of Elon Musk. (Photo by Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP) (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)

    Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads? The app is vapid, boring and destined to fail

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
  • Elon Musk with twitter logo in front of him

    Twitter was locked in a chaotic doom loop. Now it’s on the verge of collapse

    Siva Vaidhyanathan

May 2023

  • University students answering to female teacher<br>Male and female students raising hands in classroom. Men and women are answering to mature teacher. They are together in university.

    My students are using AI to cheat. Here’s why it’s a teachable moment

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
  • ‘News organizations must choose democracy or risk being used for free by the forces that oppose democracy.’

    Dear CNN, giving Trump a town-hall platform is the height of irresponsibility

    Siva Vaidhyanathan

March 2023

  • ‘Musk is both a celebrity who can focus the world’s attention on a fringe question with just a Tweet and an employer of thousands of people he can actually affect with his company’s policies and practices.’

    Elon Musk’s defense of Scott Adams shows why he is misguided and dangerous

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    When Adams makes a fool of himself, he mainly just harms himself. But Musk has the power to harm others

October 2022

  • ‘Elon Musk’s longtermism is easy to dissect and dismiss, it is also dangerous because it’s so attractive to the rich and powerful.’

    Like Trump, Elon Musk reveals a vapid mind super-charged by wealth and ego

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    Musk, despite his wealth, good fortune and global influence, is not a serious person – but he is toying with dangerous ideas

April 2022

  • ‘US law, Musk might be frustrated to learn, not only allows but encourages digital platforms to moderate the content that flows across them.’

    Elon Musk doesn’t understand free speech – or Twitter – at all

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    Twitter is less like a ‘town square’ and more like any Starbucks, McDonalds, or shopping center. It has other obligations and interests that are at odds with completely unfettered speech

October 2021

  • Frances Haugen, a former member of Facebook’s ‘civic integrity team’, has launched a deft and professional public assault on the company.

    Facebook has just suffered its most devastating PR catastrophe yet

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    We must demand that Facebook tell the full, unvarnished truth. Fortunately for us, the public, the truth tends to come through despite Facebook officials’ best efforts to obscure it

September 2021

  • ‘Working for Facebook these days must be a crushing moral and social experience.’

    Leaks just exposed how toxic Facebook and Instagram are to teen girls and, well, everyone

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    The company’s own research reveals that, in short, the problem with Facebook is Facebook

June 2021

  • Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, before a House panel on antitrust last year.

    So the government’s antitrust lawsuit against Facebook failed. Where now?

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    It turns out that Facebook is more powerful and resilient – and American antitrust law less helpful – than critics of big tech had hoped

May 2021

  • 2021 Morehouse College Commencement<br>ATLANTA, GEORGIA - MAY 16: Author Nikole Hannah-Jones speaks on stage during the 137th Commencement at Morehouse College on May 16, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Marcus Ingram/Getty Images)

    What is at stake with Nikole Hannah-Jones being denied tenure

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
  • ‘The decision to ban Trump and his pages in January was a significant reversal of company policy. For years Facebook had treated Trump gingerly, scared of blowback’.

    Facebook is pretending it cares how its platform affects the world

    Siva Vaidhyanathan

October 2020

  • ‘Only in 2020 have tech companies begun to take seriously the dangers of Holocaust denial, massive conspiracies that spark violence, anti-vaccine and other medical misinformation, and disinformation about voting.’

    The Hunter Biden story was a test for tech platforms. They barely passed

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    Facebook and Twitter are trying to avoid repeating the 2016 misinformation disaster, but haven’t totally figured out how

July 2020

  • Coronavirus Covid-19 High School Class of 2020 parade<br>epa08448133 Teachers stand with a large banner with the names of the graduating seniors of the class of 2020 while cars carrying the graduates drive past during a high school senior class parade outside of Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA, 27 May 2020. With the remainder of the school year cancelled on 21 April 2020 to help stop the spread of the coronavirus and Covid-19, many schools have held alternative celebrations for the graduating seniors of the Class of 2020. EPA/CJ GUNTHER

    America is not prepared for schools opening this fall. This will be bad

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
  • This Monday, June 29, 2020 photo shows the Reddit logo on a mobile device in New York. Reddit, an online comment forum that is one of the internet’s most popular websites, on Monday, June 29, 2020 banned a pro-Donald Trump forum as part of a crackdown on hate speech. Reddit banned a total of 2,000 of these forums, or subreddits, most of which it said were inactive or had few users. (AP Photo/Tali Arbel)

    Why did it take so long for Reddit and Facebook to block racist groups?

    Siva Vaidhyanathan

May 2020

  • US President Donald Trump has cut ties with the World Health Organization<br>epa08453294 US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with industry executives on the reopening of the economy at the White House in Washington, DC., USA, 29 May 2020. President Trump said on 29 May that the US will be terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization, saying it had failed to adequately respond to the coronavirus outbreak. EPA/ERIN SCHAFF / POOL

    Well done, Twitter. You've finally figured out how to deal with Trump's tweets

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    Twitter has never stood up for the interests of Twitter users over Trump before. That has now changed

March 2020

  • new york skyline

    The economy v our lives? It's a false choice – and a deeply stupid one

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    Calls to reopen America have disturbing intellectual roots. And the millions of deaths that could ensue would fuel a depression beyond our imagination

February 2020

  • ‘The Democrats needed a bracing embarrassment early, so they could learn from it.’

    Silicon Valley sells snake oil 'solutions'. The Democratic party fell for them

    Siva Vaidhyanathan
    If the Democrats take one lesson from Iowa, it should be that simple, dependable technology is better than flimsy, new technology
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