Money, access, and power in the Big Tech aristocracy
I did not expect this book, The Tyranny of Big Tech by Josh Hawley, to affect me in the way it did. I expected a boring rant about censorship. I chose to read it because last year I witnessed many voices on Facebook and Twitter being silenced, YouTube accounts suddenly demonetized or deleted, social networks deplatformed, escalating as time went on, and continuing today. I’ve always taken the First Amendment for granted, always assumed our rights, in the land of the free, home of the brave, were sacrosanct. Then books under contract lost publishers, and others were not getting forums for exposure. Even now I hear about a book that sounds interesting in an interview, and learn it was published months ago with little to no fanfare. As a lifelong reader, it was frightening to witness such severe shifts in a matter of months. Hawley’s unassuming book with its muted gray cover, is a staggering indictment of Big Tech, its rise to power, and incestuous relationship with...