Katherine Mangu-Ward

Good old Matt Salmon, who I profiled when I was an intern at Reason 25 years ago.

And who was, you know, like quite libertarian in many ways and just...

In that case, actually, I think he was part of the term-limited crew, the voluntarily self-term-limited crew who all went out in that kind of end stage of the Gingrich Revolution.

For reasons of my own safety, among other things, I wouldn't presume to put a label on that man even this many years later.

Yeah.

You know, I think the thing about big tech is that almost always when people describe the thing they fear from big tech, what is the consequence that we're looking to prevent when we talk about our worries with big tech?

Actually, it is almost always a fear about the state.

And so when I say that, I mean, well, OK, maybe I don't want one company having all my data.

Well, OK, why?

Is it because you're worried that they're going to sell you stuff?

No, that's not why.

Is it because you're worried that they might aggregate that data and paint a portrait of the market or even of the electorate?

OK, maybe.

But what we actually are worried about is, well, what happens when

the government gets its hands on that data and uses it to punish, imprison, censor or otherwise, you know, infringe on your rights.

And what we've seen, what we saw, for example, in the Twitter files was sometimes big tech

gladly cooperates with the state.

And I think that is gross and bad.

But I'm not sure that the entity at fault or kind of the place that I want to lay the blame there fully is with big tech, because, of course, they understand that, you know, in that instance, the Biden administration, but all presidential administrations

They hold a huge amount of power in that relationship.