Engadget: “Jon Stewart says Apple asked him not to host FTC Chair Lina Khan”

I wanted to have you on a podcast and Apple asked us not to do it, Stewart told Khan. They literally said, Please don’t talk to her.

In fact, the entire episode appeared to have a “things Apple would let us do” theme. Ahead of the Khan interview, Stewart did a segment on artificial intelligence he called the false promise of AI, effectively debunking altruistic claims of AI leaders and positing that it was strictly designed to replace human employees.

They wouldn’t let us do even that dumb thing we just did in the first act on AI, he told Khan. Like, what is that sensitivity? Why are they so afraid to even have these conversations out in the public sphere?

I think it just shows the danger of what happens when you concentrate so much power and so much decision making in a small number of companies, Khan replied.

Steve Dent

I haven’t been terribly convinced by Lina Khan’s lines of attack against Amazon, but it’s good to have someone actively challenging Big Tech’s relentless accumulation of power nevertheless. That Apple would try to censor her, a government official, is both unsurprising and concerning for the state of American democracy. Naturally – because the tech press is endlessly enamored with Apple and everyone loves to hate on the federal government – this attracted far less attention online than musicians removing their catalogs from Spotify, ostensibly in protest against Joe Rogan’s podcast two years ago.

Lina Khan – FTC Chair on Amazon Antitrust Lawsuit & AI Oversight | The Daily Show

It will certainly be interesting to follow the recently filed DOJ lawsuit against Apple, which also calls out Apple’s dominance as potentially harmful to speech.

On a smaller note, this should serve as a warning sign for creatives (in particular those with exclusive deals) that their shows – and livelihoods – are at risk if they start threading into topics that their platforms consider off limits.

Speaking of the Joe Rogan controversy on Spotify, last month both Neil Young and Joni Mitchell returned to Spotify after Rogan’s podcast stopped being an exclusive – money does speak louder than principles after all…