Techdirt Podcast Episode 418: The Elonification Of Government

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/13/techdirt-podcast-episode-418-the-elonification-of-government/

Weekly output: Boost Mobile, AI at BT, digital privacy, Elon Musk’s X agenda, Salt Typhoon breaches T-Mobile

I have more than enough practice at traveling to the other side of the Atlantic, but this week’s trip to Lisbon for Web Summit had me sandbagged by jet lag almost every night. It appears that I never got my head into Western European Time, to judge from my not feeling wiped out in a “do not operate heavy machinery” way after I got home Friday night.

11/11/2024: Boost Mobile Touts 5G Network Progress, Adds Sub-$100 5G Phone to Lineup, PCMag

The advance copies of Boost’s PR materials were vague about some key points, but the carrier’s press rep did get back to me to clarify that the $10 billion network-buildout expense shared in them was a total estimate, not a forecast of costs to come.

11/12/2024: Will Gen AI generate value for the corporate landscape?, Web Summit

My first panel at this conference had me interviewing Alex Bell, BT’s digital director of service, and Michael Park, a senior vice president and global head of AI go-to-market at ServiceNow, about how the former company had enlisted the latter to put AI to work in some important IT and customer-service systems.

11/12/2024: Secure swipe: protecting customer data, Web Summit

My second and final panel–fewer than I usually field at this conference–put me on stage with Brittany Kaiser, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower turned Own Your Data advocate, and Marcus Räder, founder and CEO of the lodging-services firm Hostaway, to discuss how companies collect and keep data and how they would be better off not hoarding so much customer information.

11/14/2024: ‘Things Are Different for Elon’: Who Needs X When You Have Political Power?, PCMag

I only wrote up one Web Summit panel for PCMag, but it was a very good one: New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac talking about Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover of Twitter. They went beyond their recount of that in their book Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter to discuss our new oligarch-in-chief’s privileged perch in Donald Trump’s circles.

11/16/2024: Chinese State-Sponsored ‘Salt Typhoon’ Hackers Also Breached T-Mobile, PCMag

I usually try to avoid writing posts on the weekend, but a) this was news that had gone uncovered at my client and b) I had written less than usual over the rest of the week and c) I have bills coming that aren’t going to pay themselves.

#AI #BoostMobile #BrittanyKaiser #BT #ChineseHackers #ElonMuskTwitter #KateConger #Lisbon #oligarch #RyanMac #SaltTyphoon #TMobile #WebSummit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UsiHGlOXUw

#Zeteo

'Very FEARFUL Environment Around [#ElonMusk]' #MehdiHasan Speaks to Authors #RyanMac and #KateConger of #CharacterLimit

Is #RyanMac here yet? I've only found a couple accounts that look less official than the other #banned #journalists

remember folx, #JOURNALISM IS IMPORANT.

#twitterpurge #twittermigration