The reign of Big Tech is here, and Americans’ First Amendment rights hang by a keystroke.
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.
