logo
episode-header-image
Feb 28
1 h

224: The Big Tech Critic Trump Is Trying...

Offline with Jon Favreau
About this episode

Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, joins Offline to talk about the horrifying trends his team has unearthed across social media platforms…and how it’s put him in the crosshairs of the Trump Administration. To date, Imran has weathered multiple lawsuits, stood up to Elon Musk, and won. But now, the State Department is trying to get him deported back to the UK—just for publicizing how platforms are hotbeds of bigotry and self harm content. He and Jon talk about how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is a cancer on our democracy, why Tech Oligarchs view the rest of us as NPCs, and how the “things" Silicon Valley is moving fast and breaking are actually our own children.

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

Up next
Feb 21
223: Zuckerberg Takes the Stand, Pete Hegseth vs. AI, and Max-Maxxing with Max Fisher
Max Fisher returns to the show to podmaxx with Jon about the latest Offline-worthy news, including the landmark court case that's put Mark Zuckerberg on trial and internal drama at the AI giants that has the companies feuding with the Department of Defense, Hollywood, and their o ... Show More
59m 3s
Feb 14
222: The Philosopher Teaching AI to Be Good
AI company Anthropic has a new, values-oriented “constitution” that they’re feeding their chatbot, Claude. Amanda Askell, the company’s in-house philosopher, joins Offline to talk about what it means to teach ethics to an LLM, whether the AI skews more human or more robot, and ho ... Show More
59m 30s
Feb 7
221: Can Truth Survive the Trump Era?
Charlie Warzel, Atlantic staff writer and host of the "Galaxy Brain" podcast, joins Offline to break down the news of the week: how Elon Musk's negligence and the Epstein Files continue to corrode our society, whether we’ve reached The Singularity with new AI-only social media si ... Show More
59m 23s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2025
Why Trump’s Blood-and-Guts Strategy Worked
<p>Happy Independence Day! We’ll be back next week with a new episode, but today we’re sharing the episode that started us on the path to “Interesting Times.” Ross Douthat talks to Reihan Salam, the president of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Together they wrote the ... Show More
55m 30s
Jan 2025
It's a Numbers Game Podcast: The Rise of Trump's Multiracial Coalition
<p>In this episode, Ryan and Patrick Ruffini discuss the evolving dynamics of American politics, particularly focusing on the rise of Donald Trump's multiracial coalition and the shifting voting patterns among minority groups. They explore the concept of racial de-alignment, the ... Show More
38m 59s
May 2019
115: THE EVE OF THE WAR with special guest Stephen Bush of the New Statesman
As the EU Election clock ticks remorselessly down to zero we’re joined by the New Statesman’s political editor STEPHEN BUSH to survey the campaign so far and predict the upshot. What will Labour’s “all things to everyone” stance to do its vote? How do we fight the Brexit Party’s ... Show More
1h 13m
Oct 2025
How The Sale Of A Voting Machine Company Could Affect 2026 Midterm Elections
Dominion Voting Systems, the election technology firm at the center of several election-related conspiracy theories in 2020, was sold this month and rebranded as Liberty Vote. We discuss the practical implications of the transformation and how it could affect the 2026 midterm ele ... Show More
14m 24s
Aug 2025
1048: Pete Buttigieg Thinks Democrats Can't Go Back
<p>Pete Buttigieg—former South Bend mayor, 2020 presidential candidate, and Transportation Secretary—sits down with Jon Favreau to discuss how much of the status quo Democrats should aim to restore (if any) if they win in 2026, what the party needs to change to effectively messag ... Show More
1h 15m
Nov 2024
949: Making Sense of Trump's Win
After a night of resounding losses and a nationwide lurch to the right, Jon, Lovett, Tommy, and Dan begin to sift through the pieces—what we know, and we don't, about the race Democrats ran, what voters are looking for, and how to endure the turmoil of a second Trump term. For a ... Show More
54m 17s
Oct 2024
Pay Pals: How Billionaires Influence Elections
Money in politics isn't new, but billionaire influence in our elections has reached staggering levels – and 2024 could break all previous election spending records. From the presidential race to down ballot elections and think tanks to media empires, wealthy donors are reshaping ... Show More
59m 59s