Big Tech Internet—The Dystopian “Ministry of Information”

Big Tech Internet, the dystopian, quote, Ministry of Information. That is a topic we'll discuss today right here on the Christian Worldview Radio Program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news of Jesus Christ that sinners can be reconciled and forgiven to God through believing in the person and the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf. I'm David Wheaton, the host of the Christian Worldview.

We are a non-profit, listener-supported radio ministry, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Again today is Big Tech Internet, the dystopian Ministry of Information. Romans 6, verse 16 says, Do you not know, Paul writes, that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slave whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? In other words, Paul is saying that whatever we obey in life, repetitively we become the slave of that.

And if it's sin, it leads to death, and if it's obedience to God, that leads to eternal life. So I want to start out today by just a one-sentence truism that has become apparent in life, especially with the huge expansion of information over the internet. It's the one who controls the information is the one who is in control.

The one who controls the information is the one who is in control. And that has become axiomatic, just obvious, in our new age of Big Tech Internet. Companies like Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and others are not only some of the the largest companies in history, but they're also the most influential, and they influence what people think about and what they should think about. What's more, these companies know how to keep you connected to their platforms through notifying you of content that they know because of your browsing history that will engage you and keep you connected. They know you through your online behavior, and the more time you spend with them, so to speak, the more opportunity they have to make money through advertising to you and to influence you to their worldview.

And if you don't, by the way, comply, so to speak, with their standards on their platform, if you write something, post something that's against their worldview, their standards, well they can just turn you off, turn your page off on whatever platform it is. Now Netflix produced a documentary this year on the immense power of Big Tech called The Social Dilemma, where they interviewed all kinds of executives from these big tech companies and experts in the tech industry, and it sort of pulled back the curtain on just how influential and addictive their platforms are. And so this weekend on the Christian worldview, we're going to examine big tech internet and how the future is and will be shaped by their, not Christian worldview, but by their humanistic worldview. And we'll also discuss how Christians can navigate this realm of the internet that we're all involved in, whether we want to be or not. But to start, let's acknowledge that the internet is not all bad. You know, we're going to say a lot of things today about play sound bites from that Social Dilemma docudrama and so forth that's going to make it seem like the internet is just terrible, stay away, don't have the internet.

Well, there is obviously some good elements. Let's acknowledge that, that these platforms we're even talking about Facebook and Twitter and all these different social media companies on the internet, they can be used for good purposes and they are being used for good purposes, for gospel proclaiming purposes. The Word of God and the gospel is literally going out across the internet to places it has never gone before, reaching more people than it's ever gone, than it's ever done before. I mean, there are sermons to watch online, church services now during the coronavirus pandemic that people are watching online. There's access to information about the Bible. You go to gotquestions.org and they have 500,000 questions that people who are curious about or have questions about scripture can go to find out answers to.

There are radio programs like this all over the internet. So even beyond those gospel proclaiming purposes, there's an ability with these social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook or other ones to connect with family who aren't living in the same area or to do business from home. Another benefit, another good thing that's taking place on the internet right now, so I want to qualify some of the things we're going to say today that's saying there are good elements to the internet. But there's another reality as well that must be acknowledged.

We can't just focus on, oh, it's good and the gospel is going out and the rest of it just kind of turned the other, turned the other, turned the eyes away from that. The internet is also used for evil as well. I mean, we're not going to talk about the huge business of pornography that just ruins people's lives.

It's a multi-billion dollar industry that takes place on the internet that's made it so much more readily available than having to go to buy a print pornographic magazine as in the old days. There's also the element on the internet of all the false philosophies and false religions that are leading people astray. So there's those things, but that's not exactly our topic today as well. Our topic really today is focusing on information and how big tech internet is the purveyor, the controller of all the information or almost all the information that gets disseminated around the world. Another one is the one, again, the one who controls the information is the one who is in control.

So how and why is that? Well, it's pretty simple that the voice that reaches the most people, in other words, if you have the biggest voice in the world, you control not only what the topic is that people should be thinking about, in other words, you also control how that topic should be viewed. So for example, we're talking about in the radio program today, big tech internet, right? And so you listening are thinking about big tech internet, and you weren't thinking about until I just bring it up, like something like, let's say, illegal immigration, because that's not what we chose to broadcast today. So this voice today is talking about big tech internet, which subtly, maybe not intentionally, I guess it does intentionally, compel you to think about that topic and not about other topics. So it's a multiply that times a billion times bigger voice, big tech internet has way bigger voice than we do. And so the billions of people using Google and YouTube and Facebook and Twitter, they are compelled to think about the topics that those big tech companies kind of put out there.

And then not only what the topic is, but how you should think about it. Now, of course, this doesn't capture everyone, you can think outside their box, of course. But it captures a majority of people who use these platforms around the world. And that's enough for them to hold power to have lots of power in the world. So they control the topic, because they're the ones that have the biggest voice.

And then also they can control how that particular any topic should be, be viewed. So I mentioned this, this docudrama called the social dilemma. And Wikipedia has a page on it. I'll just read a paragraph from there just to give you some background on what this docudrama is.

It's called the social dilemma came out this year 2020. It explores the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society. And it focuses on five things. Number one, it's exploitation of its users for financial gain through surveillance, capitalism and data mining. So we're going to get into each one of these points today and play some soundbites. Number two, the film focuses on how its design of big tech internet, how these platforms, social media, so forth, how their design is meant to nurture an addiction to them. Number three, how these platforms Google and Facebook and so forth are used in politics.

Boy, isn't that relevant with this most recent election. Number four, big tech internet's effect on mental health, including the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates. And number five, big tech's role in spreading conspiracy theories.

And we'll get into that as well. And it goes on to describe as the film features interviews with many former employees and executives of these big tech companies and other professionals from top tech companies and social media platforms who provide their first-hand experience. That's what makes the film powerful. I mean, these, they didn't just get kind of employees of Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and all these other companies, but they have former executives on camera that you're going to hear today talking about just the nefarious element of how powerful these companies have become. Interviewees state that social media platforms and big tech companies have been instrumental in providing positive change for society.

I mentioned some of those, but they didn't think from a Christian element. But anyway, they also note that such platforms have also caused problematic social, political, and cultural consequences. These interviews are presented alongside dramatizations of a teenager's social media addiction in a primer and how a social media algorithm powered by artificial intelligence may work. So in the film, there's sort of this thread that goes through with this teenager.

They're showing him kind of an example of how a teenager gets so addicted to all the platforms and how the big tech companies are literally controlling his life. In other words, the one who controls the information is the one who's in control. Now, those last two terms there, social media algorithm powered by artificial intelligence works.

Now, just to clarify those terms, they're big words, but it's actually fairly simple. An algorithm defined as it's a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem solving operations by a computer. And that works with, so algorithm is used by artificial intelligence is basically a computer is trained by humans, given options, and it learns to make calculations. So artificial intelligence is the development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making. So do you remember back in the day when IBM developed the computer Watson, and they taught Watson how to play chess, and Watson eventually played against the great human chess grandmaster in the world, and eventually Watson won, because Watson has, over time, would learn every single possible potential move in chess and could calculate that faster than even a human brain could calculate that. And so in time, Watson, the computer, through artificial intelligence and its algorithms, its calculations, is able to defeat a human brain in chess, because the computing speed and possibilities are just done so fast by a computer.

So that's really not surprising. So let's get to the first soundbite from the film. And this is from a former Google design ethicist, and he was working for Google, and he began to see the problems with where things were going, and he made a presentation to Google, and here's where it went. And that was when I decided to make a presentation, kind of a call to arms. It basically just said, you know, never before in history have 50 designers, 20 to 35-year-old white guys in California, made decisions that would have an impact on 2 billion people. 2 billion people will have thoughts that they didn't intend to have, because a designer at Google said, this is how notifications work on that screen that you wake up to in the morning. And we have a moral responsibility as Google for solving this problem. Okay, we'll take our first break of the day. You can probably see how this will be received at Google when one of their executives or employees says, hey, wait a second here, where is this all going?

We'll come back and talk more about big tech internet after this. Who is George Soros and what does he believe? Are you religious? No. Do you believe in God? No. Soros told the independent newspaper in Great Britain, it is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of God, the creator of everything.

But I feel comfortable about it now, since I began to live it out. Soros spends his billions to transform America into godless socialism. Be informed about him and the organizations he funds by ordering this George Soros resource bundle, which includes a 60-minute deep dive into the world of social media. George Soros resource bundle, which includes a 60-minute DVD, 60-page book, and 16-page follow the money chart and guide for a donation of $50 or more to the Christian worldview. To order, call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331 or visit thechristianworldview.org. That's thechristianworldview.org. The Bible says that children should be raised in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. There's nothing more important than sitting, walking, talking, and teaching your son or daughter to love and fear God. The church is swimming in children's resources, but it's ultra-important to select ones that accurately represent God, His Word, and the Gospel. At our store on thechristianworldview.org, we are intentional about offering resources that will build a sound and strong faith in children. You will find several Bibles for children, the Adam Raccoon book series, and Good News for Little Hearts series.

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Just go to your podcast app on your smartphone to do that, or if you need to know more about that, go to thechristianworldview.org and click on the page How to Listen to the program where it has a list of all our stations and streaming sites and podcasts and so forth. We're talking about Big Tech Internet today, the dystopian ministry of information and how this is going straight toward use by eventually in the future in the end times by the Antichrist. I'd be shocked if if Big Tech Internet is not the way that the Antichrist will be able to control this global empire that he has, because again, one who has the information, one who controls the information is the one who is in control. I was playing a soundbite from this documentary called The Social Dilemma and they go through how these big tech companies, and by the way, it's not just social media, you need to make a little distinction there. Social media is more like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, where people are sharing with each other. There's also the big elephant in the room, which is Google, which I think Google owns YouTube, that's also a social media site, but Google is not quite social media in and of itself, it's a search engine, but they gather so much information and the information they bring up when you search is what Google wants to bring up for you. So that's not quite social media.

So it's a little bit beyond social media, although social media is the core of of how these big tech companies gain so much control. And I was reading this or I was playing the soundbite before the break there by this former design ethicist from Google named Tristan Harris. And so he was working for Google and he began to see that, wait a second here, he said 25 to 50 white guys.

I'm not sure why the white guy is relevant. If it was a multicultural panel of 25 to 50 people in California, would that be any better that they were controlling what two billion users in the world, what kind of content they would see? Anyway, he started to be troubled about this and he made a presentation to his own company saying, you know, we really need to think about this, that so few people are controlling the content, the information of so many people across the world.

Here's the rest of that soundbite. You know, never before in history have 50 designers, 20 to 35 year old white guys in California, made decisions that would have an impact on two billion people. Two billion people will have thoughts that they didn't intend to have because a designer at Google said, this is how notifications work on that screen that you wake up to in the morning. Just a quick note, that's just what we were saying earlier, that they bring up a topic and they notify of it. And so when it comes into your phone or computer, it makes you think about whatever topic they fed to you in that moment. And then there's also the next step is, well, then they're going to say how you should think about this particular topic.

And we have a moral responsibility as Google for solving this problem. And I sent this presentation to about 15, 20 of my closest colleagues at Google. I was very nervous about it.

I mean, I wasn't sure how it was going to land. When I went to work the next day, most of the laptops had the presentation open. Later that day, there was like 400 simultaneous viewers.

And so it just kept growing and growing. I got emails from all around the company. I mean, people in every department saying, I totally agree. I see this affecting my kids. I see this affecting the people around me.

We have to do something about this. I felt like I was sort of launching a revolution or something like that. Later, I found out Larry Page had been notified about this presentation in three separate meetings that day. And so it created this kind of cultural moment that Google needed to take seriously.

And then, nothing. So he created this presentation showing how this doesn't seem right. That, you know, very small amount of people are controlling what people think all over the world. And we have a moral response of moral responsibility to make sure, you know, we're doing the right thing here. And he makes a presentation. People at Google are seeing this and agreeing.

And it's taking over our family's life. Even people who work for Google are saying that. Then it goes to Larry Page, the CEO at the time. I'm sure he's still the CEO. As a matter of fact, I don't think he is.

I think another guy is now. But it went to him. And all of a sudden, there was just nothing. There was no follow up.

It's like, oh, that's a nice presentation. Let's move on with business as usual. And I'm not surprised by that at all. Of course not. There's so much profitability in these companies that, you know, they're going to shirk that responsibility.

They're not going to self police themselves. So you may ask, well, how are these, this big tech internet, these companies different than like regular media that have been around for years, like the New York Times and LA Times newspapers and television, mainstream news and all that? Aren't they just, don't they just control what you think and don't they control, you know, how you view it and so forth?

Well, there's a little similarity there. But really, the differences are just huge. I mean, big tech internet is so much more powerful than regular media. Regular media, mainstream media doesn't know about you.

They may send you a newspaper through the mail or do a television program that you choose to watch on TV. But big tech internet knows almost everything about you. They know from your browsing history and what you click like on the internet and Facebook and so forth. They already know what content you like.

And thus, they know they have a very good idea of what your worldview is. And of course, when they know that, then that information can be used to advertise to you for things that they think that you will like and potentially buy. That's one big difference between big tech and the mainstream media. Mainstream media is just kind of feeding you news stories that they think have general public interest. Big tech internet can get very specific and give information and advertising specifically to you. Now, it can go beyond that, too, because the information they know about you can also be used to silence you or persecute you or feed personalized information to you because they know so much more about you than any mainstream media outlet, newspaper, or television. So how do these big tech companies know so much and have so much influence?

Well, it's actually quite simple because the most powerful ideas in life are often pretty simple. If you think about Facebook, for example, instead of everyone on Facebook having their own individual website, you know, davidwheaton.com, johnsmith.com, and someone else.com, instead of individual websites, people have to go from one website and type in a new website from one to another. What Facebook has done is they've created one website with millions of little sub pages, little websites within their website that's easily connected from one to another. So you see all your list of friends there, you can just click from one person to another and go to their page and see what they're doing. They made a very easy way to connect people with each other.

And again, that can be used for for good purposes. But when you're on their platform, okay, and when you journal your life and post things on Facebook and post pictures, and most importantly, click that little like button when you read an article or see a picture or, or read a post of a friend, what you're doing is letting Facebook know what you will like. So Facebook keeps record of every single thing you do when you are on their platform. So they're they're getting this, they're using this artificial intelligence to find out that, you know, David Wheaton, you know, likes Christian radio. He likes, he likes Labrador retrievers, we have two labs in places I've gone, if I'm posting those things online, and you know, how many children I have and where I went to school, and you know, and then if I like certain articles that have a certain worldview to them, then they start to get a get a, an understanding of what I believe. And then once they know all that, then they know so much about me.

And that that's how they develop, they can they get all this information. So if you post content on on gardening, or click like on an article on gardening on Facebook, Facebook now knows you like gardening. And then when a gardening company comes along and, and wants to advertise on Facebook to people who like gardening, well, Facebook knows exactly the people who like gardening. And so you're going to find an ad in your Facebook feed for something to do with gardening. It's actually the perfect way to advertise instead of a shotgun approach to advertising where you shoot many little BBs out and try to hit as many people as you can. This is a much more efficient way to advertise, but you're taking a single bullet, and you're targeting at a person that you already know, likes gardening, so they're much more likely to buy your product, you don't have to spend as much money in advertising, you can be specific and target it much more.

And this is exactly what this docudrama, the social dilemma said, listen to this next soundbite about advertising on Facebook. It's the gradual, slight imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product. And that is the product. It's the only possible product.

There's nothing else on the table that could possibly be called the product. That's the only thing there is for them to make money from changing what you do, how you think, how you think, who you are. This is what every business has always dreamt of, to have a guarantee that if it places an ad, it will be successful.

That's their business. They sell certainty. In order to be successful in that business, you have to have great predictions.

Great predictions begin with one imperative. You need a lot of data. Many people call this surveillance capitalism. Capitalism profiting off of the infinite tracking of everywhere everyone goes by large technology companies whose business model is to make sure that advertisers are as successful as possible. This is a new kind of marketplace now. It's a marketplace that never existed before. And it's a marketplace that trades exclusively in human futures. Just like there are markets that trade in pork belly futures or oil futures. We now have markets that trade in human futures. That's exactly right. They know exactly so much about you that they can advertise directly to you and that can turn incredible profit for advertisers.

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Thank you for joining us today on the Christian worldview radio program I'm David Wheaton the host our topic today is and probably next week the way we're getting through some of these sound bites from the social dilemma the docudrama uh what topic is the big tech internet the dystopian ministry of information and just by the way before we get back to some of those sound bites we just mailed out our year-end letter and so you should be receiving that it's a letter and our resource guide here coming at the end of the year we'd really greatly appreciate your consideration of supporting our our non-profit listener supported radio ministry and you can find out how to do that in the year and letter we're also going to email it out as well if you're not on the mailing list and it's also posted on our website as well thechristianworldview.org you can go there and read the letter you can see some of the featured resources here at the end of the year if you are going to order products or resources you need to do that fairly soon though because of shipping and media mail and different things that go on this time of year so try to make some of those orders early so you can get them in time for christmas now i want to play the rest of that sound bite from the social dilemma and how the whole point again these are all former executives of these big tech companies talking about it and how the beginning that sound part the man said the product is getting you to slightly change your behavior just to to nudge you enough to do something that's what they're they're after and so then that that woman came on and she's a her name is shoshana zuboff she's a professor at harvard and she's saying how this advertising when it's when it's applied to advertising when they they know everything about you and so they can advertise specifically to you how powerful that is that that's like the holy grail of advertising instead of having to send a mailer in ten thousand mailboxes and nine thousand people aren't interested in at all and you have to mail those nine thousand it's just a waste of money what these big tech companies can do especially like facebook since they know all this information about you is that they can tell an advertiser oh you're selling a gardening product well we already know which of our users of our with our whatever two billion users we already know which ones like gardening and which ones live in certain states and which ones you can tailor your advertising we'll put it right to their news feed and no one else so it's incredibly efficient advertising so here's the rest of that sound bite by the harvard professor so shana zuboff this is a new kind of marketplace now it's a marketplace that never existed before and it's a marketplace that trades exclusively in human futures just like there are markets that trade in pork belly futures or oil futures we now have markets that trade in human futures at scale and those markets have produced the trillions of dollars that have made the internet companies the richest companies in the history of humanity that's a very big statement the richest companies in the history of humanity now not only do they control the information they have all the information but they have so much of the money and when you put information and money is power you put those together i mean these are like almost like governmental organizations they don't have militaries but they're controlling the information and that is incredibly powerful and so through advertising is how they make their money i told you how facebook does it google does it in a similar way you know when they advertisers pay google to appear higher up on a search result so when you search for let's say again using the example of gardening when you search for you know a seed spreader on google a company some seed spreader company who's paid google to have their ad appear higher they know through human behavior through artificial intelligence and algorithms that people will not search down six pages on google you can only see what's in front of you and they know most people will not go down six pages to find the one that they may want the company that paid to have their ad appear on the first page of google is likely to get the business so google can charge a lot of money for that kind of advertising for people who do quote google searches you know google it right it's become a verb it's a name of a company but it's become a verb for a search engine so google knows all your search and browsing history and they can respond also to the searches you do with information tailored to you so you know you think well how much am i in control of what i'm doing on the internet well you you are able to to choose what you read and watch but just know that these companies facebook google youtube and so forth they are also feeding you constantly what they want you to read and watch what they know you will like to read and watch and they're nudging you ever so slightly so that they can move society according to their vision even to the point of who you're going to vote for and we're going to get into that today talking about how they influence elections so whether it's google facebook youtube twitter instagram they have this model that's that this this data capturing model and how to monetize it with advertising and so forth that every other tech company aspires to so this is not going backwards this is only going to become more and more efficient as artificial intelligence with their algorithms learns how to better use the information to better monetize it to better influence people and just going to become bigger and bigger and bigger and so that's the next sound bite is that everything you do online is evaluated everything you do don't think you can go online and go to a website or do anything online without it's not being recorded by a person it's being recorded by machines with artificial intelligence that then know how to use this data to to market back to you and to influence you to feed you things that's going to keep you connected here's the next sound bite from the social dilemma what i want people to know is that everything they're doing online is being watched is being tracked is being measured every single action you take is carefully monitored and recorded exactly what image you stop and look at for how long you look at it oh yeah seriously for how long you look at it they know when people are lonely they know when people are depressed they know when people are looking at photos of your ex-romantic partners they know what you're doing late at night they know the entire thing they have more information about us than has ever been imagined in human history it is unprecedented and so all of this data that we're that we're just pouring out all the time is being fed into these systems that have almost no human supervision and that are making better and better and better and better predictions about what we're going to do and who we are okay so these are all again these aren't just uh you kind of rank and file employees at these companies one i think the first one who spoke there was jeff seabird a former executive at at twitter they've been in the leadership of these companies and they know exactly their experience firsthand what was taking place so again the five points they they bring out in the social dilemma that its exploitation of its users for financial gain through surveillance capitalism and data mining we've already already talked about that you know how they know everything about you and so therefore they can market to you now frankly this in and of itself isn't wrong unless they're spying on you which i'm sure takes place and you're you're unless your consent isn't granted you know to go to a website and you can't track my information but i don't even think you can turn that off there's nothing necessarily wrong about facebook capturing or recording what you like and what you post you after all you're on their site and like i said it's a perfect way to advertising advertise but it's also good for the consumer too let's let's let's let's say that as well because you can you can buy just about everything anything um based on you know what you're looking for and they may market products to you that you actually really want or or need but just know like that soundbite said that everything you do online is being evaluated and then trying to be monetized okay the second thing the the documentary brings out is how the design of big tech internet is meant to nurture an addiction this isn't unintentional by by the way they try to connect you to their platforms facebook uh twitter these kind of platforms they they know human physiology and psychology and so they they try to connect you to the platform so you become addicted to it and you see this all the time people are addicted to their phones the internet and so forth and here's how one big tech executive from he's a former president of pinterest his name is tim kendall here's how he talked about that the addictiveness of these platforms and the way they notify you and the the content they feed you the it not only in traps or addicts just the users of it but even the guys who are designing it and running it listen to how he talks about his own life rewind a few years ago i was the uh i was the president of pinterest i was coming home and i couldn't get off my phone once i got home despite having two young kids who needed my love and attention i was in the pantry you know typing away on an email or sometimes looking at pinterest this is classic irony i am going to work during the day and building something that then i am falling prey to and i couldn't i mean some of those moments i couldn't help myself it's interesting that knowing what was going on behind the curtain i still wasn't able to control my usage so that's a little scary that's a former president of pinterest saying that he literally couldn't control the addictive nature of how these platforms operate and this has been widely discussed you see people on there just everyone's locked onto their cell phones now there's a reason for that the desire to know information by us is a big driving desire anytime you get a notification comes into your phone or computer what are you going to do not look at it they know this and the more they can notify you and send you emails and the more they can they can keep your interest and keep you connected and you think of all the addictions in the world whether it's addictions to sex and pornography or to getting rich and making money or to alcohol and drugs or the desire the addiction to to be at the center of attention or for exercise or something they talk about in this this film there's literally a physiological or psychological dopamine it's like this chemical in your body that gets hit like a drug when you're when you get triggered of something of interest that they feed you so they keep feeding you content you're interested in and they know from your browsing history what you're interested in no longer they can keep you engaged in online the more they learn about you and the more you get addicted we have much more coming up on big tech internet and the dystopian ministry of information right after this who is george soros and what does he believe are you religious no do you believe in god no soros told the independent newspaper in great britain it is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god the creator of everything but i feel comfortable about it now since i began to live it out soros spends his billions to transform america into godless socialism be informed about him and the organizations he funds by ordering this george soros resource bundle which includes a 60-minute dvd 60-page book and 16-page follow the money chart and guide for a donation of 50 dollars or more to the christian worldview to order call 1-888-646-2233 or write to box 401 excelsior excelsior minnesota 55331 or visit thechristianworldview.org that's thechristianworldview.org be sure to take advantage of two free resources that will keep you informed and sharpen your worldview the first is the christian worldview weekly email which comes to your inbox each friday it contains a preview of the upcoming radio program along with need to read articles featured resources special events and audio of the previous program the second is the christian worldview annual print letter which is delivered to your mailbox in november it contains a year-end letter from host david wheaton and a listing of our store items including dvds books children's materials and more you can sign up for the weekly email and annual print letter by visiting thechristianworldview.org or calling 1-888-646-2233 your email and mailing address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org okay final segment of the day here on the christian realview radio program where we're talking about big tech internet google facebook youtube twitter instagram others that have become this dystopian ministry of information the ministry of information is what communist countries typically have it's the ministry of propaganda is what it is that they're so powerful they have the biggest voice and they influence how how people think and that's exactly what these big tech internet companies are doing as well they have all the information on people they can feed people the information or the the products they want them to see that they know they'll be interested to to make money uh to become more powerful that way but they can also use the information they have on people to to influence people or to shut people down or to to really control people's lives and so we've talked about this social dilemma docudrama and that they brought out five points in this particular film the first is the exploitation of users for a financial game through their marketing it's like perfect marketing they know who's going to want a certain product talked about that we talked about how the design of these platforms is meant to nurture and addictions not just this is not just a oh we didn't mean it to do that no they actually design it so that they can keep you connected for longer they want to keep you on their platform for as long as possible for two reasons number one they can uh during that time they can learn more about you and therefore advertise better to you and they can find out more about you so they can influence you so if you let's say you're someone who believes there's election fraud in this past election and we're going to get into that in a second um you know you'll you've noticed on on facebook that whenever someone just anyone posts an article about oh there's fraud in georgia or pennsylvania or michigan and so forth facebook will put like a correction a little note below it see this article here for your truth the truth on the election process or so forth they in other words they they they they have a counter a counterweight immediately to anything they don't believe is truth they don't believe electric there was any election fraud and so therefore they counter it right away talk about power so anyone who reads your page where you think there's election fraud immediately has to see what facebook's perspective on you know excuse me on election fraud is so that's how they do it so now that's the next point is how do these big tech companies are involved in in politics well they're hugely involved in politics everyone has a worldview in life and so do these big tech companies and so what they did during this particular election and before this this is nothing new we're seeing this all over the news now that these companies facebook google and so forth they throttle down uh concern conservative news and opinions or they put warnings or they cut your account or these kinds of things if they if you put out information that quote they don't like right and so and then they keep feeding their content with the lines with their worldview and so anyone who's really not solid in what they they believe and know easily gets swayed by this if you keep on getting you know you keep on telling a lie or a certain thing over and over again people start to believe that it's actually the case so like i mentioned every time some someone posts something on facebook regarding the election facebook puts a warning about election truth out there and the same thing with twitter twitter was doing the same with president trump's tweets he'd tweet something and they'd say this has not been substantiated in you know by in in quote independent fact checkers yeah who's an independent fact checker as if there's people out there who are who have no worldview are completely independent that doesn't even exist so you you could you can see now that um like for instance even in headlines you you in headlines you see like for instance in the minneapolis star tribune i saw a recent headline that said in video trump recycles um unsubstantiated voter fraud claims that's a headline in the minneapolis star tribune it's online as well in video trump recycles unsubstantiated full voter fraud claims so what the star tribune is telling you that there's no such thing as voter fraud in this particular election okay then the byline for the story is increasingly detached this is the description of what the story is about increasingly detached from reality okay there's an editorialization right there president donald trump stood before a white house lectern and delivered a 46-minute diatribe against the election results that produced a win for democrat joe biden um unspooling one one misstatement after another to back his baseless claim that he really won okay you see how that's done there in other words in one sense you have mainstream media and this is on the internet of course minneapolis star tribune they've now joined in of course with the internet they're not just print newspapers anymore uh saying that president trump is recycling an opposite unsubstantiated claim of voter fraud there's no such thing uh one misstatement after another baseless climbing look at this is what robert knight was saying a lot other week on the program here that there's all this editorial there's no there's no even attempt in in in big tech media now to be uh just try to be non-partisan in the way you just deliver the news let the people instead of having the the headline uh in video trump makes uh voter fraud claims okay that that would be the accurate way of pertinent and then you the reader can decide whether those are true or not no now they go to a different level trump recycles unsubstantiated voter fraud claims well that's according to the minneapolis star tribune now if you go to another website online let's say the epoch the epoch times are the federalist more conservative every single headline on that page is about you know vast voter voter fraud is found hundreds of affidavits of eyewitness testimony of voter election fraud uh you know dominion voting machines are able to be reprogrammed and so you just think wait a second here in one sense uh big tech internet saying there's nothing to see here there's no voter fraud but some of these other smaller media outlets are saying look at all these stories of voter fraud in this election so you're thinking well well who's who's telling the truth here and this is exactly the point for how they can control in information and what people think they know that they have a big voice and so if they can counter everything that goes against what they believe or goes against their worldview they can sway an election i mean when you do a search in google google controls which of the top results you get they know that most people will not search past that first or second page and so they when you search for something on president trump or conservatism they don't necessarily need to have in their artificial intelligence those that type of information come up on the first page they're in complete control of that and that's exactly relevant for what took place in this last election now look i'm not an investigative journalist and so forth i don't know the extent but i see both sides i see the mainstream media and these big tech companies saying there's nothing to see here in this election and then you read more conservative outlets saying there's all kinds of things to see here this is like a a constitutional crisis where we may have someone elected who really wasn't the the the will of the people and so what do you do that's how much power big tech internet has this dystopian ministry of information but we're going to have a whole nother part two on this because we're getting to next week how the implications of big tech internet is going to be used in the end time it's going to be a perfect tool for the anti-christ someday and also for how christians to navigate this world we're all engaged in the internet so what do you do it's hard to disconnect because everything's on the internet nowadays so how do you navigate it we'll talk about that next week on the christian worldview radio program you know we do live in a changing and challenging world of big tech internet but there is one thing we can always trust and count on jesus christ and his word are the same yesterday today and forever we hope today's broadcast turned your heart toward god his word and his son to order a cd copy of today's program or sign up for our free weekly email or to find out how you can be reconciled to god through jesus christ go to our website thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 the christian worldview is a weekly one-hour radio program that is furnished by the overcomer foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount go to thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at box 401 excelsior minnesota 55331 that's box 401 excelsior minnesota 55331 thanks for listening to the christian worldview until next time think biblically and live accordingly you