Digital Republic

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK TO READ‘One of the foremost thinkers on the transformative impact of the technology revolution’ - TONY BLAIR‘Original and hopeful . . . a unique guide to the great challenges of the digital age’ - ANNE APPLEBAUM‘Lucid and persuasive’ - NIALL FERGUSONThe Digital Republic is the definitive guide to the great political question of our time: how can freedom and democracy survive in a world of powerful digital technologies?Not long ago, the tech industry was widely admired and the internet was regarded as a tonic for freedom and democracy. Not anymore. Every day, the headlines blaze with reports of racist algorithms, data leaks, and social media platforms festering with falsehood and hate. In The Digital Republic, acclaimed author Jamie Susskind argues that these problems are not the fault of a few bad apples at the top of the industry. They are the result of our failure to govern technology properly, a failure derived from decades of muddled ideas and wishful thinking.The Digital Republic charts a new course, with new legal standards, new public bodies and institutions, new duties on platforms, new rights and regulators, and new codes of conduct for people in the tech industry. Inspired by the great political essays of the past, and steeped in the traditions of republican thought, it offers a vision of a different type of society: a digital republic in which human and technological flourishing go hand in hand.

Jamie Susskind’s big book is a welcome arrival on the scene . . . The most refreshing thing about this fine book is its ideological stance . . . It’s time for a change, and The Digital Republic is a good place to start, Jamie Susskind has established himself as one of the foremost thinkers on the transformative impact of the technology revolution. The Digital Republic is as innovative in its ideas as it is sharp with its analysis, offering an important contribution to the future of technology regulation while bridging the gap between changemakers and policymakers, A deeply engaging and thought-provoking book which should be read by everyone (including those with no technical knowledge) who wants to understand how AI can affect our lives, and how we could rise to the challenges this presents, In the shadow of algorithmic discrimination, Big Tech's overarching power, and menacing cyberwarfare, Susskind offers an alternative, enticing and convincing in equal parts: digital republicanism. I am sold. Read this book, The sprawling power of tech giants is one of the biggest, most complex and urgent challenges facing modern democracy. It takes rare clarity, focus and intellectual discipline to address the issue as lucidly and practically as Jamie Susskind has done in The Digital Republic

Jamie Susskind is a barrister and the author of the award-winning bestseller Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech, which received the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize 2019 and was an Evening Standard and Prospect Book of the Year. He has fellowships at Harvard and Cambridge and currently lives in London.