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books_ergo_sum 's review for:
The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley
by Marietje Schaake
informative
This book is a whistleblower’s description of how:
👉 governments increasingly off-load public services and responsibilities onto tech companies
+
👉 tech companies being “less regulated than the average cup of coffee,” not to mention being some of the most opaque and least accountable companies in the world
=
bye, bye democracy
Tech companies undermine the fabric of democratic society: freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, transparency, and free expression. They’re opaque, monopolistic, and increasingly, they’ve taken on governmental roles and the fourth estate. Yet, with zero accountability to the public plus a secretive, authoritarian vibe in general.
I think there were two reasons why this book was so successful:
⭐️ One, Schaake is not a lefty Luddite (as much as I love lefty Luddites). She’s a pro-tech elected member of Dutch parliament for the D66 (Democraten 66) party, aka THE centrist party, from 2009-2019 and international org person since then. So like, she genuinely wants to make tech companies and markets work… and she was just like, no this ain’t it. At all.
⭐️ And two, this book is hella thorough. She goes through EVERYTHING—
Social media? Fail.
Data protection? Fail.
Outsourcing government functions to ClearView AI, Palantir, etc? Oof, such a fail.
Building data centres? Fail.
Crypto? Fail.
Anything to do with AI? ENORMOUS FAIL.
It was interesting to hear all this from such an insider. She was the tech-portfolio person in parliament, heading up all the tech related committees, meeting with officials all over Europe, the White House, and tech company boardrooms.
So why the 4 stars? Wellll, did I say that her centrism was a major part of the book’s success? It was also why I can’t give it 5 stars. The “liberal world order”? She’s a big fan. And she called it the “Israel-Hamas war”—you know what I mean?
Still, I recommend this one. Also, as someone who lives in the Netherlands, I’m so grateful for all the work she’s done. We have SO MUCH more protection from tech companies than other countries do (the US especially). And topic is so important right now.
👉 governments increasingly off-load public services and responsibilities onto tech companies
+
👉 tech companies being “less regulated than the average cup of coffee,” not to mention being some of the most opaque and least accountable companies in the world
=
bye, bye democracy
Tech companies undermine the fabric of democratic society: freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, transparency, and free expression. They’re opaque, monopolistic, and increasingly, they’ve taken on governmental roles and the fourth estate. Yet, with zero accountability to the public plus a secretive, authoritarian vibe in general.
I think there were two reasons why this book was so successful:
⭐️ One, Schaake is not a lefty Luddite (as much as I love lefty Luddites). She’s a pro-tech elected member of Dutch parliament for the D66 (Democraten 66) party, aka THE centrist party, from 2009-2019 and international org person since then. So like, she genuinely wants to make tech companies and markets work… and she was just like, no this ain’t it. At all.
⭐️ And two, this book is hella thorough. She goes through EVERYTHING—
Social media? Fail.
Data protection? Fail.
Outsourcing government functions to ClearView AI, Palantir, etc? Oof, such a fail.
Building data centres? Fail.
Crypto? Fail.
Anything to do with AI? ENORMOUS FAIL.
It was interesting to hear all this from such an insider. She was the tech-portfolio person in parliament, heading up all the tech related committees, meeting with officials all over Europe, the White House, and tech company boardrooms.
So why the 4 stars? Wellll, did I say that her centrism was a major part of the book’s success? It was also why I can’t give it 5 stars. The “liberal world order”? She’s a big fan. And she called it the “Israel-Hamas war”—you know what I mean?
Still, I recommend this one. Also, as someone who lives in the Netherlands, I’m so grateful for all the work she’s done. We have SO MUCH more protection from tech companies than other countries do (the US especially). And topic is so important right now.