We need to regulate Big Tech. But the money and influence concentrated in Silicon Valley makes it an unfair fight. Baroness Beeban Kidron shows us what resistance looks like: inside the rooms behind closed doors, and in the halls and corridors of power.
'A thrilling story of how democracies can respond to the world’s most powerful industry, told by the woman who is leading the charge.' Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation
'Kidron brings the insider knowledge of a legislator and the storytelling instincts of a filmmaker to one of the most urgent crises of our time.’ Tristan Harris, co-founder of Center for Humane Technology
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WE ARE NOT USING TECHNOLOGY. TECHNOLOGY IS USING US.
In USERS, legislator and campaigner Beeban Kidron takes you on a journey from the halls of Parliament and the UN to the White House and Silicon Valley. Through her encounters with specialist police officers, bereaved parents, lobbyists and tech bros, you’ll witness the unchecked power of Big Tech, as they avoid rules and regulations, and capture governments that are meant to protect us.
You’ll see how the issue is not technology itself, but its use and abuse. How tools built to connect people are redeployed to divide, punish, distract, and control; while our tech overlords come to own everything – but continue to be held responsible for nothing. Now that we know their game, it's time to fight back.
This book will show you what went wrong, what is really going on, and what we can do about it.
Praise for USERS:
'Beeban has spent her life watching what Big Tech does to childhood. We fight the same battle. USERS is her reckoning and her roadmap: we must demand better – but only if we have the courage. Read it. Then join our fight!' Maria Ressa, journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
‘This book will help us understand how high the stakes are and how we can fight back.’ Sir Elton John and David Furnish
Baroness Beeban Kidron is a global authority on digital regulation and accountability, and is a leading voice on children’s rights in the digital environment. She has played a determinative role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across the world.
Baroness Kidron sits as a crossbench peer in the UK’s House of Lords, and is founder and former Chair of the 5Rights Foundation. She serves on the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy and is a former member of the UN Broadband Committee. She is a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics, where she chairs the Digital Futures for Children research centre, and is an advisor to the University of Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI.
