CYBER CITIZENS

An activist for digital literacy examines major social and political issues of the day and offers potential solutions.

Boghosian begins her nonfiction work on the current digital landscape by mapping what she calls our “digital, global ecosystem of mutually accepted realities,” examining the technological and cultural forces that she says have put democratic norms under siege around the world. Drawing on in-person interviews (mostly with guests on her long-running civil-liberties radio show Law and Disorder), and a broad range of academic and news sources, she tracks how misinformation, weakened civics education, and invasive corporate practices are shaping public life, online and off. In a strong indictment of education practices, she links the decline in political literacy to the rise of militarized school structures and a public that’s increasingly vulnerable to fakery. A second section, appropriately titled “Democracy in Tilt,” explores how new media ecosystems—often aided by “trillionaire overlords” and policy-shaping think tanks—have amplified hate speech, spread conspiracy theories, and eroded faith in democratic institutions. She doesn’t shy away from concrete examples, as when she discusses the “false flag” conspiracy theories that appeared in the wake of the 2018 Parkland school shooting. She also presents startling stories of U.S. government failings; passages about outdated technology can be chilling, as when she tells of a U.S. airbase where ballistic missiles still ran on floppy disks. The final section turns to remedies, profiling the European General Data Protection Regulation, Estonia’s digital governance, and the role of librarians as “cyber hygienists.”

The author offers a checklist of best practices for media literacy and privacy protection, but even with such solutions, the need for vigilance feels daunting. Her research is impressively comprehensive, giving the book an immediate feeling of authority. Over the course of the book, the sheer range of her examples effectively shows the scale of the problem, making this an excellent primer for readers discovering terms such as “digital literacy” for the first time. However, this exhaustive approach can sometimes work against the flow of her storytelling. Many of her case studies are built on compelling individual stories, but they start to feel truncated after a while. A profile of a neo-Nazi and his journey to running an anti-hate nonprofit, and a story of a lawyer’s fight against a jealous ex’s use of revenge porn, ultimately feel like rushed footnotes, rather than fully fledged narratives that support the points that Boghosian wishes to make. Readers who’ve has some exposure to these topics may find some of the material familiar, and the author tends to return repeatedly to generic calls for “discernment and prudence” when it comes to evaluating digital information. Still, Boghosian brings a methodical and even tone to every section, allowing the evidence of political maneuvering and hate speech to speak for itself; she also shows an impressive knack for connecting disparate threads. The result is a valuable, well-researched resource that will be a wake-up call, and a sobering experience, for many readers.

Essential reading for today’s online citizenry, featuring dense but vital research.