Marietje Schaake's "The Tech Coup" examines the growing power of Silicon Valley and its impact on democracy. The book explores how technology companies have become increasingly influential in shaping political discourse and public policy. Schaake analyzes the challenges posed by big tech's dominance, including issues of data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the spread of misinformation. She argues that these companies have amassed too much power and influence, and that urgent action is needed to address these concerns. The book offers concrete policy recommendations for regulating big tech and protecting democratic values in the digital age. Schaake's work provides a critical analysis of the relationship between technology and democracy, offering insights into how to safeguard democratic principles in the face of technological disruption.
Over the past decades, under the cover of "innovation," technology companies have successfully resisted regulation and have even begun to seize power from governments themselves. Facial recognition firms track citizens for police surveillance. Cryptocurrency has wiped out the personal savings of millions and threatens the stability of the global financial system. Spyware companies sell digital intelligence tools to anyone who can afford them. This new reality--where unregulated technology has become a forceful instrument for autocrats around the world--is terrible news for democracies and citizens.
In The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley (Princeton UP, 2024), Marietje Schaake offers a behind-the-scenes account of how technology companies crept into nearly every corner of our lives and our governments. She takes us beyond the headlines to high-stakes meetings with human rights defenders, business leaders, computer scientists, and politicians to show how technologies--from social media to artificial intelligence--have gone from being heralded as utopian to undermining the pillars of our democracies. To reverse this existential power imbalance, Schaake outlines game-changing solutions to empower elected officials and citizens alike. Democratic leaders can--and must--resist the influence of corporate lobbying and reinvent themselves as dynamic, flexible guardians of our digital world.
Drawing on her experiences in the halls of the European Parliament and among Silicon Valley insiders, Schaake offers a frightening look at our modern tech-obsessed world--and a clear-eyed view of how democracies can build a better future before it is too late.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society 
