Cyberlibertarianism

This book argues that right-wing ideology was built into both the technical and social construction of the digital world from the start.

Leveraging more than a decade of research, David Golumbia traces how digital evangelism has driven the worldwide shift toward the political right, concealing inequality, xenophobia, dishonesty, and massive corporate concentrations of wealth and power beneath the utopian presumption of digital technology as an inherent social good.

The book provides an incisive critique of the push for open access and open-source software, the legal battles over online censorship and net neutrality, and how the internet has been used by terror and hate groups and political disinformation campaigns.

It highlights technology’s role in advancing hyperindividualist and antigovernment agendas and demonstrates how various figures and organizations have worked to hamper regulation and weaken legal safeguards against exploitation.