S2 EP2: Why Civil's Token Sale Failed

And facing Twitter's problems too.

Civil couldn't convince enough people that blockchain and crypto-economics were the answer to journalism’s problems. It didn't even come close to its $8m goal. But, #failure is common in the tech world. And so are pivots. On this episode, Civil Media CEO Matthew Iles acknowledges the screw-ups and explains why the company is still solvent. Plus, the second half of our Twitter and 'misinformation' explainer with research from the Knight Foundation. Can you, lawmakers, or Twitter do anything to stop falsehoods from flowing? Yes, actually.

GO DEEPER:

The Knight Foundation's report on Misinformation and Twitter includes unusual and beautiful mapping of tweets. Twitter plans to ban 'dehumanizing speech' and measure 'conversational health'. Civil's mea culpa and Nieman Lab's analysis of the token-sale failure. In his TED talk, sociologist Duncan Watts explains why common sense doesn't apply in the digital world. Learning from the Civic Tech graveyard. The New Yorker's excellent feature on the weird world of crypto. 

ILLUSTRATION:

This week, Giorgia Lupi of Accurat depicts the interview Vlad Barash of Graphika about his work researching misinformation on Twitter. Here's the key...

CREDITS:

David Herman, Audio Engineer and Composer

Dan Dzula, Audio Engineer

Thalia Beaty, Producer

ZigZag comes from Stable Genius Productions, in partnership with Civil. We are proud members of Radiotopia, from PRX.

Keep the podcast going with your donation. And thank you!