The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World

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Penguin, 2012 - Computers - 408 pages

In The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World Evgeny Morozov argues that our utopian, internet-centric thinking holds devastating consequences for the future of democracy.

We were promised that the internet would set us free. From the Middle East's 'twitter revolution' to Facebook activism, technology would spread democracy and bring us together as never before.

We couldn't have been more wrong. In The Net Delusion Evgeny Morozov shows why internet freedom is an illusion. Not only that - in many cases the net is actually helping oppressive regimes to stifle dissent, track dissidents and keep people pacified, with companies such as Google and Amazon helping them do it.

This book shows that free information doesn't mean free people - and that, right now, everyone's liberty is at stake.

'Offers a rare note of wisdom and common sense, on an issue overwhelmed by digital utopians'
Malcolm Gladwell

'Passionate, admirable and important'
Observer

'The book is a wake-up call to those who think the internet is the solution to all our problems'
Daily Telegraph

'A delight ... his demolition job on the embarrassments of "internet freedom" is comprehensive'
Independent

'A compelling rebuff ... required reading for everyone'
Sunday Times

'Piercing ... convincing ... timely'
Financial Times

Evgeny Morozov is a contributing editor to Foreign Policy and runs the magazine's influential and widely-quoted 'Net Effect' blog about the Internet's impact on global politics. Morozov is currently a Yahoo! fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.

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About the author (2012)

Evgeny Morozov is the author of The Net Delusion- The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (which was the winner of the 2012 Goldsmith Book Prize) and a contributing editor for The New Republic. Previously, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation, a Yahoo fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown, and a fellow at the Open Society Foundations. His monthly column on technology comes out in Slate, Corriere della Sera, El Pais, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and several other newspapers. He's also written for the New York Times, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the London Review of Books. evgenymorozov.com