The Private Citizen

Apr 18 2024 168 ep. 281
The Private Citizen Podcast artwork

Veteran technology journalist Fabian A. Scherschel covers the most important threats to our personal liberties, privacy rights and freedom of speech. In reporting on these issues, he draws from a decade of experience in reporting on information security topics, mixed with a healthy dose of journalism critique. The show places a particular emphasis on stories and viewpoints that have been ignored in the legacy media.

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Episode 168: The TikTok Law

Apr 18 2024 122 mins  
Is the so-called TikTok law a tool to enable the US President to censor apps and websites at will? Yes and no. One thing is certain: This law isn't about TikTok; that's just a smokescreen.

Episode 167: The Death of Serious Politics

Apr 02 2024 81 mins  
Political scientist Brian Klaas looks into why we talk so much about politics, but never actually discuss any actual policy. My critique of his analysis is rather predictable.

Episode 166: The Twitter Files, Part 6

Mar 28 2024 118 mins  
Revisiting the idiotic decision to ban Donald Trump off Twitter and what it means for the future of democracy that private companies started to influence public discourse like that and got away with it.

Episode 165: I Ate'nt Dead

Mar 24 2024 66 mins  
I explain why this show went on an unplanned hiatus and once again vow to get back into the swing of things.

Episode 164: The Year 2023 in Review

Dec 20 2023 70 mins  
In my annual recap episode, I am looking back at the topics that I've covered this year and forward to the changes that 2024 will bring for the podcast.

Episode 163: Back to the Twitter Files

Nov 08 2023 88 mins  
The reporters from the Twitter Files project just won the Dao Prize for excellence in investigative journalism. Could there be a better time to dive back into these stories?

Episode 162: The Westminster Declaration

Nov 01 2023 104 mins  
What do Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, John Cleese, Yanis Varoufakis, Richard Dawkins and Walter Kirn have in common? They are all, despite holding very different political beliefs, very concerned about the future of political discourse in Western democracies.

Episode 161: The EU's Ministry of Truth

Oct 15 2023 118 mins  
EU bureaucrats maintain that the Digital Services Act is not a censorship regime, but is meant to save people from misinformation by deleting it from the internet or hiding it from view. Which, in fact, is the very definition of censorship. Welcome to the Cardassian Union.

Episode 160: The Lobbyists Behind Chat Control

Oct 07 2023 130 mins  
It turns out, that the EU's push to completely abolish digital privacy might not actually be an altruistic move to save children from abuse. Several tech companies, including one headed by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, stand to profit substantially from the decision. Which is why they massively influenced it.

Episode 159: Society Is Going to Hell in a Handbasket

Sep 28 2023 81 mins  
How following the exodus of Germany's worst YouTuber to TikTok opened a private hell of lolcows for me. To a point where I don't think I understand society as a whole anymore. What is this shit? And where is it all going to end?