Antisocial

A deeply immersive chronicle of how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs set out to create a free and democratic internet and how cynical far-right propagandists exploited that freedom to drive their fanaticisms into the mass of society. Marantz explores two worlds: that of social media entrepreneurs, who with naivety and reckless ambition changed the traditional means of receiving and transmitting information; and that of "the intruders": conspirators, white supremacists and nihilist trolls, who have become adept at using social media to promote their corrosive agenda. "Antisocial" spans a vast period, from the earliest mass-printed books to the hashtags of the present, from secret neo-fascist meetings to the White House press conference room... It reveals how the lines between technology have been blurred, media and politics, resulting in a deeply broken news landscape. It shows how many alienated young people are directed towards radicalization online and how fringe ideas are spread anonymously from social media into the collective imagination.