Dictators and Disinformation: How to Save Democracy and Rescue Social Media

In recent years, autocratic leaders around the world have gained ascendancy by attacking institutions like congress and the courts designed to keep political power in check. Simultaneously, they have subverted institutions like science and a free press that help us make sense of what is happening. These twin assaults on freedom and truth have undermined democracy and threaten human civilization. In this work Jay Friedenberg provides the background to understand politics, why it is failing, and how to fix it. He also analyzes changes in the news industry, the problems with modern-day social media platforms, and how we can build a better system not prone to algorithmic distortion. Authoritarianism and polarization are both the cause and effect of these problems, so these are also treated in detail. This book is both comprehensive and cross-disciplinary in approach. The mechanisms underlying governance and news are explained in terms of evolution, cognitive psychology, philosophy, and political science. It includes appendices with an index of 21st century dictators and their rise to power along with a list of related think tanks. Academically rigorous but accessible, theoretical and practical, historical and contemporary, this is one of the most rigorous treatments of the intersection between politics and propaganda.