The Net Delusion
  • Published: 7 February 2011
  • ISBN: 9780141961828
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432
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The Net Delusion

How Not to Liberate The World

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A polemical intervention from one of the world's most provocative and well-informed writers

Does free information mean free people?

At the start of the twenty-first century we were promised that the internet would liberate the world. We could come together as never before, and from Iran's 'twitter revolution' to Facebook 'activism', technological innovation
would spread democracy to oppressed peoples everywhere.

We couldn't have been more wrong. In The Net Delusion Evgeny Morozov destroys this myth, arguing that 'internet freedom' is an illusion, and that technology has failed to help protect people's rights. Not only that - in many cases the internet is actually helping authoritarian regimes. From China to Russia to Iran, oppressive governments are using cyberspace to stifle dissent: planting clandestine propaganda, employing sophisticated digital censorship and
using online surveillance. We are all being manipulated in more subtle ways too - becoming pacified by the net, instead of truly engaging.

This book is a wake-up call. It shows us how our misplaced faith in cyber-utopia means the West risks missing the real challenges. Morozov argues that we must look at other ways of promoting democracy abroad, and forces us - policymakers and citizens alike - to recognize that all our freedoms are at stake.
  • Published: 7 February 2011
  • ISBN: 9780141961828
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Evgeny Morozov

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

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Praise for The Net Delusion

Evgeny Morozov offers a rare note of wisdom and common sense, on an issue overwhelmed by digital utopians

MALCOLM GLADWELL

Gleefully iconoclastic ... not just unfailingly readable: it is also a provocative, enlightening and welcome riposte to the cyber-utopian worldview.

The Economist

A delight ... his demolition job on the embarrassments of "internet freedom" is comprehensive ... as we go down the rabbit-hole of WikiLeaks, Morozov's humane and rational lantern will help us land without breaking our legs.

Pat Kane, The Independent

A passionate and heavily researched account of the case against the cyber-utopians ... only by becoming "cyber-realists" can we hope to make humane and effective policy.

Bryan Appleyard, New Statesman

Evgeny Morozov is wonderfully knowledgeable about the Internet-he seems to have studied every use of it, or every political use, in every country in the world (and to have read all the posts). And he is wonderfully sophisticated and tough-minded about politics. This is a rare combination, and it makes for a powerful argument against the latest versions of technological romanticism. His book should be required reading for every political activist who hopes to change the world on the Internet.

Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

The Net Delusion is considerably more than an assault on political rhetoric ... a war against complacency.

Tom Chatfield, Observer

Required reading for all ... a compelling primer and rebuff to the "cyber utopians" ... trenchant and persuasive.

John Kampfner, Sunday Times

Lively and combative ... dauntingly well-informed ... injects a welcome dose of common sense into an issue that has been absurdly lacking in it.

John Preston, Sunday Telegraph

Piercing...convincing...timely.

Ben Hammersley, Financial Times

[M]ore than rewards a respectful reading, not only for the author's impressive knowledge of the internet toolbox...but because of his ability to relate such technological gadgetry to the increasing challenges that are being posed to entrenched authoritarianism

James M Murphy, Times Literary Supplement

Selected by the New York Times as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2011

New York Times