Gun and cash

“Billion Dollar Bully” Yelp Keeps Pressure On Businesses

Despite bad publicity and lawsuits, Yelp continues to tank ratings in order to punish those who won’t advertise.

Podcast #32: Josh Golin on Marketing to Kids

Josh Golin, Executive Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, fights a metastasizing marketing machine that has swept kids into its orbit of consumerism and surveillance.

Jonathan Taplin

Podcast #28: Jonathan Taplin on Internet Aggregators

Jonathan Taplin, former music and film professional, tells first-hand what the new rentier economy of Internet aggregators like Google and Facebook has done to the creative arts, journalism, and democracy.

Eye

What Facebook Knows

We’ve long known Facebook is selling our data to advertisers in a vague sense; now we can see what they’re hoarding and who’s buying.

Podcast #19: Tim Kasser Talks Materialism

Tim Kasser has spent over two decades studying the relationship between materialism and well-being. As it turns out, they don’t always go together.

David Sax

Q&A with David Sax, Author of The Revenge of Analog

Our own Art Keller chats with author David Sax about the themes in his book The Revenge of Analog.

Walter Langelaar

He Started #DeleteFacebook… Nine Years Ago

Nine years ago, three artists created a controversial site to make a statement about Facebook’s practices. The company sued and accused them of scraping data. Oh, the irony.

Alia Meddeb

For Yelp, Extortion Has a Starring Role

Yelp uses the power of its rating system to bully small businesses into buying their expensive advertising; if they decline, so do their ratings.

The Suicide Algorithm: Facebook’s Self-Appointed Role in Mental Health

Facebook’s invasive attempts to identify suicidal individuals, while collecting revenue from advertisers targeting them, may do more harm than good.