The gripping and galling inside story of how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks preyed on psychological frailties to create the algorithms that drive everyday users to extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions. The companies' founding tenets, combined with a blinkered focus on maximizing engagement, have led to a destabilized world for everyone. -- adapted from jacket.

"Social media has been weaponized, as state hackers and rogue terrorists have seized upon Twitter and Facebook to create chaos and destruction. This urgent report is required reading, from defense expert P.W. Singer and Council on Foreign Relations fellow Emerson Brooking"-- "Two defense experts explore the collision of war, politics, and social media, where the most important battles are now only a click away. Through the weaponization of social...

Disinformation. Trolling. Conspiracies. Social media pile-ons. Campus intolerance. On the surface, these recent additions to our daily vocabulary appear to have little in common. But together, they are driving an epistemic crisis: a multi-front challenge to America's ability to distinguish fact from fiction and elevate truth above falsehood. In 2016 Russian trolls and bots nearly drowned the truth in a flood of fake news and conspiracy theories, and...

"A searing, vital investigation of the Republican Party's dangerous campaign to rewrite history in real time from the Emmy Award-winning producer of The Rachel Maddow Show" -- "For as long as historical records have existed, people in positions of authority have tried to rewrite history to suit their purposes. The pattern has become tragically familiar: dictatorial powers use their editing pens to create myths, spread propaganda, justify decisions,...

"There has never been a more important political investigation than Robert S. Mueller III's into President Donald Trump's possible collusion with Russia. His momentous findings can be found here, complete with: -- The 300+ pages of the historic report -- An introduction by constitutional scholar, eminent civil libertarian, and New York Times bestselling author Alan Dershowitz. -- The relevant portions of Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations,...

"For several years, Andrew Marantz, a New Yorker staff writer, has been embedded in two worlds. The first is the world of social-media entrepreneurs, who, acting out of naïvete and reckless ambition, upended all traditional means of receiving and transmitting information. The second is the world of the people he calls "the gate crashers" -- the conspiracists, white supremacists, and nihilist trolls who have become experts at using social media to...

"By revealing the machinery and dynamics of the interplay between influencers, algorithms, and online crowds, DiResta illustrates the way propagandists deliberately undermine belief in the fundamental legitimacy of institutions that make society work. These invisible rulers create bespoke realities to revolutionize politics, culture, and society. Their work is driven by a simple maxim: if you make it trend, you make it true. DiResta predicts the consequences...

"The internet has transformed the ways we think and act, and by consequence, our politics. Strangely, today's radical left and right can both trace their movements' origins to massive collectives of teenagers gathering on an anime image board called 4chan.org. This book] explains how a single website has had such a powerful effect on American politics, even as its users experienced a fundamental shift in their worldviews. Author Dale Beran has observed...

"In February of 2013, Richard Stengel, the former editor-in-chief of Time, joined the Obama administration as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Within days, two shocking events made world-wide headlines: ISIS executed American journalist James Foley on a graphic video seen by tens of millions, and Vladimir Putin's "little green men"--Russian special forces--invaded Crimea, amid a blizzard of Russian denials and false...

The only book with exclusive analysis by the Pulitzer Prize-winning staff of The Washington Post, and the most complete and authoritative available. Read the findings of the Special Counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, complete with accompanying analysis by the Post reporters who've covered the story from the beginning. This edition from The Washington Post/Scribner contains: --The long-awaited report -- An introduction...