Overview

An urgent polemic about the precarious future of democratic society in the tech age from the bestselling author of The Dark Net **Winner of the 2019 Transmission Prize** **Longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing** 'A superb book by one of the world's leading experts on the digital revolution' David Patrikarakos, Literary Review 'This book could not have come at a better moment... The People Vs Tech makes clear that there is still time - just - for us to take back control' - Camilla Cavendish, Sunday Times The internet was meant to set us free. Tech has radically changed the way we live our lives. But have we unwittingly handed too much away to shadowy powers behind a wall of code, all manipulated by a handful of Silicon Valley utopians, ad men, and venture capitalists? And, in light of recent data breach scandals around companies like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, what does that mean for democracy, our delicately balanced system of government that was created long before big data, total information and artificial intelligence? In this urgent polemic, Jamie Bartlett argues that through our unquestioning embrace of big tech, the building blocks of democracy are slowly being removed. The middle class is being eroded, sovereign authority and civil society is weakened, and we citizens are losing our critical faculties, maybe even our free will. The People Vs Tech is an enthralling account of how our fragile political system is being threatened by the digital revolution. Bartlett explains that by upholding six key pillars of democracy, we can save it before it is too late. We need to become active citizens; uphold a shared democratic culture; protect free elections; promote equality; safeguard competitive and civic freedoms; and trust in a sovereign authority. This essential book shows that the stakes couldn't be higher and that, unless we radically alter our course, democracy will join feudalism, supreme monarchies and communism as just another political experiment that quietly disappeared.

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9781785039065

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Reviews

A provocative report on the looming dystopia of the digital revolution and its effects on democracy... [Bartlett] meticulously scrutinizes the social and political consequences of our increasingly digitized world and how its control compromises societal frameworks and individual freedoms... His renunciation of tech's tightening stronghold is consistently cogent, as is the viable, counterbalancing arsenal of pragmatic solutions that he provides at the end of the book. Relevant, cautionary, prognosticative insights on the enduring digitization vs. democracy turf war. * Kirkus *

This book could not have come at a better moment, when we are all in the grip of the endlessly unfolding story of Cambridge Analytica... when it comes to the workings of Big Tech, the blogger Jamie Bartlett clearly knows his stuff... He brings home, chillingly, the menacing passivity of algorithms... I enjoyed this book. It made me think... And The People Vs Tech makes clear that there is still time - just - for us to take back control. -- Camilla Cavendish * Sunday Times * A provocative report on the looming dystopia of the digital revolution and its effects on democracy... [Bartlett] meticulously scrutinizes the social and political consequences of our increasingly digitized world and how its control compromises societal frameworks and individual freedoms... His renunciation of tech's tightening stronghold is consistently cogent, as is the viable, counterbalancing arsenal of pragmatic solutions that he provides at the end of the book. Relevant, cautionary, prognosticative insights on the enduring digitization vs. democracy turf war. * Kirkus *

Author Information

Jamie Bartlett is the bestselling author of The Dark Net, Radicals, and The People Vs Tech, which was longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing and won the 2019 Transmission Prize. He founded the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos and regularly writes on technology and society for the Spectator, the Sunday Times and elsewhere. In 2017 Jamie presented the two-part BBC TWO documentary series The Secrets of Silicon Valley. His TedTalk about dark net drugs markets has been watched nearly six million times. In 2019 his critically acclaimed BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen reached number 1 on the iTunes charts, and has been downloaded millions of times.

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