How the Internet is Killing Democracy

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 system of government that was created long before big data, total information and artificial intelligence?

Jamie Bartlett is tech journalist and Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos. He presented the BBC2-series The Secrets of Silicon Valley and is the bestselling author of The Dark Net (2015), an examination of the hidden corners of the internet, and Radicals Chasing Utopia: Inside the Rogue Movements Trying to Change the World (2017). In 2018, he published the book People vs. Tech: How the Internet is Killing Democracy.

Night of the Dictatorships
This lecture is a collaboration with the national Night of the Dictatorships, an initiative of ProDemos. The Night of the Dictatorships is the counterpart of the United Nations' Day of Democracy (September 15th) and raises awareness for liberty, democracy and the rule of law by discussing dictatorships around the world.