A lot has happened in the first 100 days of Trump's second term. It’s nearly too much to keep up with, really, but we're going to try. Verge policy editor Adi Robertson joins Decoder this week to talk through six of the biggest stories and themes we're covering, from tariffs to TikTok to DOGE.
Links:
Donald Trump’s first 100 days: all the news affecting the tech industry | The Verge
The DOGE days have just begun | The Verge
America is living in tariff limbo | The Verge
MAGA’s next wave of influencers saved TikTok | The Verge
Whatever happened to the Kids’ Online Safety Act? | The Verge
Brendan Carr’s FCC is an anti-consumer, rights-trampling harassment machine | The Verge
Warning systems for floods, hurricanes, and famines are suffering from Trump’s data purge | The Verge
Why Trump can’t be trusted with Congress’ new anti-deepfake bill | Decoder
How Trump’s tariffs actually work on the ground | Decoder
The FCC is a weapon in Trump’s war on free speech | Decoder
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
--------
52:25
Decoder Live: Fired FTC commissioners fight back
A few days ago, I hosted a panel with FTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya at the IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, DC. We recorded the discussion, and we’re bringing it to you today.
Normal Decoder stuff, but these are anything but normal times. Becca and Alvaro were FTC commissioners until very recently, when President Donald Trump fired them — but he doesn't have that legal authority. They’re suing to get their jobs back, and they’re prepared to go all the way to SCOTUS if they have to.
Links:
Trump fires Democratic FTC commissioners | The Verge
Fired FTC commissioners sue Trump | The Verge
The case for breaking up Google has never been stronger | The Verge
The government doesn’t understand Meta | The Verge
FTC v Meta live: updates from the battle for Instagram, WhatsApp | The Verge
DOGE has arrived at the FTC | The Verge
Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s failed negotiations with the FTC | Wall Street Journal
FTC chair says he’d drop Meta case if lawfully ordered to | The Verge
Bedoya warns of “corrupting influence of billionaires”| The Verge
The FTC has enough staff to sue Amazon, after all | The Verge
Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/657115
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
--------
58:59
The case for breaking up Google has never been stronger
Today we’re talking about the very real possibility that Google might be broken up by the United States government. And to do that, I’m talking to Jonathan Kanter, the former assistant attorney general for antitrust under the Biden administration. Kanter left the DOJ after Trump was elected, but he was the architect of the major antitrust cases the Trump administration continues to pursue against Google. That means he’s much more free to share his thoughts on what it took to build and win both of these cases and what should happen next.
Links:
Google loses ad tech monopoly case | Verge
Google is in more danger than ever of being broken up | Verge
OpenAI tells judge it would buy Chrome from Google | Verge
The high stakes of Google’s monopoly trial | Verge
DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open search monopoly | Verge
Google makes history with rapid-fire antitrust losses | NYT
Read the antitrust ruling against Google | NYT
Google ad monopoly ruling's surprise winner: OpenAI | Axios
DOJ antitrust chief is ‘overjoyed’ after Google monopoly verdict | Decoder
DOJ’s Kanter says the antitrust fight against Big Tech is just beginning | Decoder
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
--------
1:12:18
Verizon’s consumer chief: Net neutrality ‘went literally nowhere’
As CEO of Verizon's consumer division, Sowmyanarayan Sampath oversees the biggest part of the company, which does business with roughly a third of the entire country. He's a longtime Verge reader, so we talked very directly about whether the huge 5G investment had actually paid off, and whether – whether the “race” we were supposedly in with China was actually worth it, and what kinds of new apps and services actually come to light.
And while Verizon fought tooth and nail against regulations like net neutrality, the current Trump administration isn’t nearly as hands-off when it comes to things like holding up deals because of DEI policies — something that’s happening to Verizon right now. So I had to ask Sampath if he was going to push back on that kind of government overreach as hard as Verizon has in the past.
Links:
The US government makes a $42 million bet on OpenRAN | The Verge
FCC scrutinizes Verizon’s $9.6 billion Frontier deal over DEI | USA Today
Verizon offers a three-year price lock — but there’s a catch | The Verge
T-Mobile updates its DEI policy to get Lumos deal approved | Fierce Network
We don’t need net neutrality; we need competition (2014) | Ars Technica
Wireless and cable industries sue to kill net neutrality (2015) | The Verge
Everything Verizon says in this terrible video against net neutrality (2017) | The Verge
Report: Most Americans have no real choice in internet providers | ILSR
T-Mobile’s merger promises couldn’t make a carrier out of Dish | The Verge
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
--------
1:12:39
How Trump’s tariffs actually work on the ground
One of the ways I’ve been trying to sort out the chaos of tariffs and trade wars is by talking to the people behind the software that makes the global trade system go. So today I wanted to bring back one of my favorite Decoder guests: Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen, whose software manages the logistics of moving things around the world, from factory to doorstep.
We didn’t get too much into the numbers — those tariff percentages keep changing — so instead Ryan and I really focused on how this system works, how it’s supposed to work, and how it’s working now, if it’s working at all.
Links:
Flexport Tariff Live Blog | Flexport
US tariffs: how Trump’s tax is hitting Big Tech and beyond | Verge
How much will Trump’s tariffs cost U.S. importers? | NYT
How much are tariffs on Chinese goods? It’s tricky | NYT
How Trump’s tariff chaos is already changing global trade | Decoder
Can software simplify the supply chain? Ryan Petersen thinks so | Decoder
Why Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen took his company back | Decoder
The U.S.-China decoupling arrives | Axios
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Decoder is a show from The Verge about big ideas — and other problems. Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks to a diverse cast of innovators and policymakers at the frontiers of business and technology to reveal how they’re navigating an ever-changing landscape, what keeps them up at night, and what it all means for our shared future.
USA