Show Notes
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent hours in a Washington courtroom this week answering questions about his decision to buy Instagram and WhatsApp more than a decade ago — and whether the social media empire he now oversees is a monopoly. Losing the high-stakes lawsuit, which was brought by the Federal Trade Commission, could ultimately lead to Meta being broken up. On POLITICO Tech, host Steven Overly unpacks Meta’s week in court with former Republican FTC Chair Bill Kovacic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from The Decoded Podcast
Sunday’s run-off vote in Brazil won’t just decide the fate of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Bolsonaro clan with which he has sparred for the last decade. It may also determine the future of one of Silicon Valley’s top overseas boogeymen, in Latin America’s largest market. Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal has emerged as the democratic world’s most aggressive governmental enforcer of political speech. Plus, David Shor, the head of data research at Blue Rose joins the show to talk about the firm’s latest survey on voters’ beliefs that AI is a bubble.
Peter Thiel does not support the Trump administration’s war in Iran, he told a private, assembled audience in Nashville on October 12. In today’s episode of Decoded, hosts Calder McHugh and Brendan Bordelon discuss exclusive recordings of Peter Thiel’s lecture series on the Antichrist, and how Thiel’s views on the Trump administration have shifted.
With Trump’s own crypto interests looming over the industry and Democrats poised for a return to power, crypto’s founding rebels are confronting an uncomfortable reality: The movement that set out to upend the financial establishment is becoming part of it.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who once called government a “giant bonfire of partisanship” and spent years on the political sidelines, has emerged as a force in the midterms — and it could signal more to come from the centibillionaire.
American voters across the political spectrum now assume most tech CEOs are conservative, according to new results from The POLITICO Poll. The results, first revealed in Decoded, could complicate not only the prospects of Republicans trying to break from Donald Trump in the midterms or 2028 amid rising backlash to Big Tech and AI. Plus, AI researchers and other industry employees emerged as a powerful political bloc this year. Tech’s traditional megadonors are still the ones bankrolling the broader fight for control of Congress in the lead-up to the November midterms.For more news and analysis, subscribe to the Decoded newsletter: politico.com/decoded Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices