The Internet In Society


The Internet In society

Cognitive and TED collaboration

About the speaker

Ray Laurence

Evgeny Morozov is a writer and researcher who studies the political and social implications of technology. A former visiting scholar at Stanford University, he has written for The New York Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times among a long list of publications.

The big issue

Does the internet actually inhibit, rather than encourage democracy? What is the true impact of the internet on protest movements? Is the information revolution transforming countries like China, Iran and Russia, or does it actually play into the hands of the dictators? In this sparkling talk, Evgeny morozov presents an alternative take on 'cyber-utopianism' — the seductive idea that the internet plays a largely emancipatory role in global politics.

Read the book

The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom 

Given that we now have a US President making policy via Twitter, Evgeny Morozov’s investigation of the flipside of the cyber-utopian dream of a democratising internet is more relevant than ever. He looks at how, far from bringing down repressive regimes, the internet is helping them track and trap their enemies. He shows how social media sites have been used to entrench dictators and threaten dissidents, making it harder - not easier - to promote democracy. In a post-truth world, it pays to understand the dark side of the internet.

Project scrapbook

Buy the artwork