Amassing unimaginable amounts of personal data, giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple--once symbols of American ingenuity and freedom--have become a techno-oligarchy with overwhelming economic and political power.
Decades of unchecked data collection have given Big Tech more targeted control over Americans' daily lives than any company or government in the world. In The Tyranny of Big Tech, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri argues that these mega-corporations--controlled by the robber barons of the modern era--are the gravest threat to American liberty in decades.
To reverse course, Hawley argues, we must correct progressives' mistakes of the past. That means recovering the link between liberty and democratic participation, building an economy that makes the working class strong, independent, and beholden to no one, and curbing the influence of corporate and political elites.
Big Tech and its allies do not deal gently with those who cross them, and Senator Hawley proudly bears his own battle scars. But hubris is dangerous. The time is ripe to overcome the tyranny of Big Tech by reshaping the business and legal landscape of the digital world.
Ginny Hogan is a writer and stand up comic.
Everyone pointing out that it’s hypocritical of Josh Hawley to use Amazon to distribute a book called “the Tyranny of Big Tech” doesn’t realize that he uses “tyranny” as a compliment
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Tonight's #LastThingBeforeWeGo? Sen. Josh Hawley took to Twitter using his iPhone to tell you to buy his book about the tyranny of big tech... on Amazon. Learn more: https://t.co/qgoTgt4IBJ #11thHour https://t.co/vMqMEBhdHG
I’m an opinion columnist at the New York Times. DMs open. signl: 415-604-2709 farhad@nytimes.com. they/them/he/him.
Josh Hawley says he’s been silenced, cancelled under the tyranny of Big Tech. Weirdly his media calendar was booked solid when I asked to talk to him. Here’s my @NYTOpinion column about Facebook, Trump, Hawley and very noisy cancellations. https://t.co/hBXVOv4cB3