Smashing the Tech Oligarchy

Many of the internet’s thorniest problems can be attributed to the concentration of power in a few corporate hands: the surveillance capitalism that makes it profitable to invade our privacy, the lack of algorithmic transparency that turns artificial intelligence and other tech into impenetrable black boxes, the rent-seeking behavior that seeks to monopolize and mega-monetize an existing market instead of creating new products or markets, and much more. Kara Swisher has been documenting the internet’s titans for almost 30 years through a variety of media outlets and podcasts. She believes that with adequate regulation we can keep people safe online without stifling innovation, and we can have an internet that’s transparent and beneficial for all, not just a collection of fiefdoms run by a handful of homogenous oligarchs. In this episode you’ll learn about: Why it’s so important that tech workers speak out about issues they want to improve and work to create companies that elevate best practices Why completely unconstrained capitalism turns technology into weapons instead of tools How antitrust legislation and enforcement can create a healthier online ecosystem Why AI could either bring abundance for many or make the very rich even richer The small online media outlets still doing groundbreaking independent reporting that challenges the tech oligarchy Kara Swisher is one of the world's foremost tech journalists and critics, and currently hosts two podcasts: On with Kara Swisher and Pivot , the latter co-hosted by New York University Professor Scott Galloway . She's been covering the tech industry since the 1990s for outlets including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times; she is an New York Magazine editor-at-large, a CNN contributor, and cofounder of the tech news sites Recode and All Things Digital . She also has authored several books, including “ Burn Book ” (Simon & Schuster, 2024) in which she documents the history of Silicon Valley and the tech billionaires who run it.

You can listen to Smashing the Tech Oligarchy online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Smashing the Tech Oligarchy is an episode from EFF's How to Fix the Internet by Electronic Frontier Foundation.

This episode is 00:29:37 long.

This episode was published on Jul 30, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from EFF's How to Fix the Internet when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.