The Death of Truth: How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed to Destroy Trust and Polarize the World--And What We Can Do About It

A best-selling author documents how facts—shared truths—have lost their power to hold us together as a community, as a country, globally, and how belief in “alternative facts” and conspiracy theories have destroyed trust in institutions, leaders, and legitimate experts.Drawing on the front-row seat he has had as the co-founder of a company that uses journalists to track online misinformation, Steven Brill takes us inside the decisions made by executives in Silicon Valley to code the algorithms embedded in their social media platforms to maximize profits by pushing divisive content. He unravels the ingenious creation of automated advertising buying systems that reward that eye-attracting content, and describes the exploitation of that ad-driven machinery by politicians, hucksters, and conspiracy theorists. He also explains how the most powerful adversaries of America have used these American-made social media and advertising tools against us with massive disinformation campaigns.Brill explains how with the development of generative artificial intelligence everything could get exponentially worse—unless we act. Apropos, in The Death of Truth, he offers thoughtful, provocative but realistic prescriptions for how we can act and reverse course—proposals that are certain to stir debate, and even action. Finally, Brill chillingly recounts how his company’s role in exposing Russian disinformation operations resulted in a Russian agent targeting him and his family. A best-selling author documents how factsshared truthshave lost their power to hold us together as a community, as a country, globally, and how belief in alternative facts and conspiracy theories have destroyed trust in institutions, leaders, and legitimate experts. Drawing on the front-row seat he has had as the co-founder of a company that uses journalists to track online misinformation, Steven Brill takes us inside the decisions made by executives in Silicon Valley to code the algorithms embedded in their social media platforms to maximize profits by pushing divisive content. He unravels the ingenious creation of automated advertising buying systems that reward that eye-attracting content, and describes the exploitation of that ad-driven machinery by politicians, hucksters, and conspiracy theorists. He also explains how the most powerful adversaries of America have used these American-made social media and advertising tools against us with massive disinformation campaigns. Brill explains how with the development of generative artificial intelligence everything could get exponentially worseunless we act. Apropos, in The Death of Truth, he offers thoughtful, provocative but realistic prescriptions for how we can act and reverse courseproposals that are certain to stir debate, and even action. Finally, Brill chillingly recounts how his companys role in exposing Russian disinformation operations resulted in a Russian agent targeting him and his family. How did we become a world where facts—shared truths—have lost their power to hold us together as a community, as a country, globally? How have we allowed the proliferation of alternative facts, hoaxes, even conspiracy theories, to destroy our trust in institutions, leaders, and legitimate experts? Best-selling journalist Steven Brill documents the forces and people, from Silicon Valley to Madison Avenue to Moscow to Washington, that have created and exploited this world of chaos and division—and offers practical solutions for what we can do about it. "A precise description of the punishment cell we have built around our minds and the first few steps back towards light and air." –Timothy Snyder, Author of On Tyranny and Professor of History, Yale University “A seminal, ground-breaking, documented and honest examination of two of the central dilemmas of our time—what is...