Event

The People vs Tech

Jamie Bartlett verbalises all our fears about the digital revolution and offers solutions on how we can protect our personal privacy, and democracy itself.

The internet was meant to set us free. But have we unwittingly handed too much away to shadowy powers behind a wall of code, all manipulated by a handful of Silicon Valley utopians, ad men, and venture capitalists? Through our unquestioning embrace of big tech, are the building blocks of democracy slowly being removed? The evidence stretches beyond Trump and Brexit and into both large countries such as Russia and China and aggressively authoritarian leaders in smaller countries from the Philippines to Hungary. After decades of western-style democracy being in the ascendancy it is suddenly in retreat.

There are six conditions for functioning democracy active citizens, shared culture, free elections, stakeholder equality, competitive and civic freedom, and trust in authority, Jamie scrutinizes them each, and finds them frail. There is plenty we can do. Come and find out.