The rise of social media has been a game changer, especially for activists looking for an uncensored outlet to spread their message. Hear how some Ukranian citizens are taking to social media to combat the agenda in Russian news coverage. And take a ride on the NYC StartupBus: a group of designers, engineers, and tech enthusiasts that are building companies from the ground up as they make their way from New York to SXSW.

You’ve heard of Uber and Lyft and the burgeoning market in alternative taxi cabs. But what would it be like to be an Uber driver? Look behind-the-scenes at what life is like for these drivers: the conversations, the pay, and the lifestyle. Is the job of an ‘Uber driver’ the new bartender? And the Bitcoin world is still digesting the reported bankruptcy and theft at the trading exchange Mt. Gox. But Bitcoin advocates say the controversy may only serve to make the crypto-currency more secure.

Season 2 of the Netflix series “House of Cards” is a massive hit in China. It airs on Sohu, the popular streaming video site there. The political drama is now its most-watched American series. Marketplace China Correspondent Rob Schmitz joins us from Shanghai to explain. Plus, play along with Marketplace Tech’s Friday numbers game: Silicon Tally.

The Oscars are this weekend and we thought it was a good chance to talk about technology in the movies, and how the movies often get it wrong when depicting the future or even the present. Plus, this week the House of Representatives passed a cell phone unlocking bill that would let mobile customers take their phones to other countries or other carriers.

There’s an urban legend in the tech community that goes like this: The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University used to keep track of how many of their undergraduates were men named Dave versus how many were women. And it was considered an accomplishment when they got the ratio down to one Dave per woman. Today we’re starting a new series about the tech industry’s diversity challenges, called “I am not a Dave.” In the first installment we take a look at a group called Lesbians who Tech, which holds its first summit this weekend in San Francisco. Plus, Taser International, the company that makes the famous weapon, is transitioning into offering new law enforcement tools in the digital space.

Protests in Venezuela have been peaking in recent weeks. Students and other citizens calling attention to the scarcity of basic goods and other issues in the country have been clashing with government forces. Many of the protestors have been organizing on the internet. But, with a government that controls the airwaves, internet can be hard to come by. Plus, Samsung has unveiled its latest and greatest gadget at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona this week: the massive tech conference is always full of exhibitions and big announcements from technology companies, and this year’s event might see new phone announcement from Samsung. But a big theme in Barcelona will also be messaging apps. Seperately, we’ve had a bit of a winter break from our regular Techsplainer segment, but we’re back: our friend at Harvard, Jonathan Zittrain, helps to answer a simple question: Who owns the internet?

What better way to wrap up the week than a round of Silicon Tally? Also, tech industry big wigs are always talking about doing stuff in the cloud. So are companies. When they’re selling you products… or selling each other products. This week Microsoft gave it’s service a makeover… the company’s Cloud storage offering is now called OneDrive. But when it comes to storing all of our data online… to be accessible from anywhere… whose servers should we be storing that information on?

Facebook announced it is buying WhatsApp, the messaging smartphone service, for $19 billion. WhatsApp lets users text free of charge. Facebook paid $16 billion for WhatsApp, plus an additional $3 billion in restricted stock that will be paid out to WhatsApp employees over the next four years.  Venture capitalists have been eyeing instant messaging technologies like WhatsApp as one of the most promising growth sectors for 2014. Think back to Facebook’s $3 billion offer for Snapchat (the one they turned down).