Tech Panic: Why We Shouldn't Fear Facebook and the Future: Soave, Robby: 9781982159597: Amazon.com: Books

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From award-winning journalist and author of the “methodical, earnest, and insightful” (The Guardian) Panic Attack, an examination of recent kneejerk calls to regulate Big Tech from both sides of the aisle.

Not so long ago, we embraced social media as a life-changing opportunity to connect with friends and family all across the globe. Today, the pendulum of public opinion is swinging in the opposite direction as Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and similar sites are being accused of corrupting our democracy, spreading disinformation, and fanning the flames of hatred. We once marveled at the revolutionary convenience of ordering items online and having them show up on our doorsteps overnight. Now we fret about Amazon outsourcing our jobs overseas or building robots to do them for us.

With insightful analysis and in-depth research, Robby Soave offers “a refreshing dose of sanity and common sense about big tech” (David French, author of Divided We Fall) and explores some of the biggest issues animating both the right and the left: bias, censorship, disinformation, privacy, screen addiction, crime, and more. Far from polemical, Tech Panic is grounded in interviews with insiders at companies like Facebook and Twitter, as well as expert analysis by both tech boosters and skeptics—from Mark Zuckerberg to Josh Hawley. You will learn not just about the consequences of Big Tech, but also the consequences of altering the ecosystem that allowed tech to get big. Offering a fresh and crucial perspective on one of the biggest influences of the 21st century, Soave seeks to stand athwart history and yell, Wait, are we sure we really want to do this?

4 stars and above

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Soave raises worthy free speech concerns. This sober account strikes a persuasive note of caution." —Publishers Weekly

“With Robby Soave’s Tech Panic, we finally have a book that cuts to the chase. This reads like a chat with a very smart friend who took the time to think all of these questions through—and who isn’t beholden to any one side.” —Dana Perino, former White House press secretary and Fox News anchor

"At long last, a refreshing dose of sanity and common sense about big tech. In Tech Panic, Robby cuts through the political hyperbole to expose a core truth—Americans enjoy greater access to the marketplace of ideas than at any time in human history, and that's a very good thing indeed." —David French, senior editor at The Dispatch and author of Divided We Fall

"I have a certain admiration for those who have taken Zuckerberg’s side in the last week, notably Robby Soave, author of Tech Panic: Why We Shouldn’t Fear Facebook and the Future.” —Niall Ferguson, Bloomberg Opinion

About the Author

Robby Soave is an award-winning journalist and author. He is a senior editor at the libertarian magazine Reason, where he writes about free speech, education and tech policy, criminal justice reform, and cancel culture, among other subjects. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, US News & World Report, and more. In 2016, Forbes named him to the “30 Under 30” list in the category of law and policy. In 2017, he became a Novak Fellow at The Fund for American Studies. He also serves on the DC Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights. Soave appears frequently on TV and radio.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Threshold Editions
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 28, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982159596
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982159597
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #3,475,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #842 in Computers & Technology Industry
- #5,084 in Public Affairs & Policy Politics Books
- #22,738 in Sociology Reference
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Robby Soave

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Robby Soave is an associate editor at Reason magazine and author of Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump. He enjoys writing about culture, politics, education policy, criminal justice reform, television, and video games. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, U.S. News & World Report, The Orange County Register, and The Detroit News. In 2016, Forbes named him to the "30 Under 30" list in the category of law and policy. In 2017, he became a Novak Fellow at The Fund for American Studies. He also serves on the D.C. Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Soave won widespread recognition for setting the record straight in two infamous cases of media malpractice: the 2014 Rolling Stone hoax article about sexual assault at the University of Virginia, and the 2019 incident involving Catholic high school students at the Lincoln Memorial. He won a Southern California Journalism Award for discrediting the former; his writings about the latter prompted several mainstream media outlets to apologize for having wrongly smeared the boys.

A Detroit native, and a graduate of the University of Michigan, Soave now lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Carrie, and their two Yorkies, Caesar and Oliver.

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Ted H
Pretty comprehensive review of a lot of issues surrounding Tech's role in speech.
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2022
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The one issue I have is on this subject:

Excerpt: Twitter, to its credit, realized it had made a mistake, and Dorsey expressed regret about how the matter was handled. “Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix,” he said. “Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that.”

If I remember right, this was after the election that Dorsey said that. There were some articles written that indicated people would not have voted for Biden if they have been aware of what Twitter had hidden. Unknown if it would have affected the outcome (Not debating the actual election process but what happened prior to it).

In China, private companies are often used to do the dirty work of the CCP. We seem to be stepping closer to that here in this country.

I would also add that the usage of liberal/conservative is outdated and is used in several places. The 60s liberal has mostly disappeared from the scene and replaced with Progressives as demonstrated by the last Democratic primary. The only group noted other than Progressives are moderates. Conservative is also out of date in the age of post-Trump.

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Loving Life
Thoughtful, easy read on social media
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2021
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This book is an easy but thought-provoking read on whether society has become overly wary of social media's impact on society. I don't agree with every conclusion, but Soave challenges pre-conceived notions and has become a must-read in this space.

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Leather Gator
Good research and writing style
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2023
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Good research and writing style

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Stardust Fan
Helpful contrarian view on the Tech Industry
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2022
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Great insights, and clever writing.

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Unus, sed leo
Wish more people were reading this book!
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2022
In preparing my own case against a "Big Tech" company based on unfair censorship, I've read probably 30 books (maybe more) on how we should deal with the predations of these giant companies. Many more than 30 articles too. And I've followed the investigations of Congress, the FTC, the Justice Department, and a variety of state government agencies. Lots of ink has been spilt and voices have been raised to outline the problem and its solutions.

Little of all that has been as good as Robby Soave's book. That's why it's disappointing that so few people are reading it. I wish more people were.

Not that I agree with all that Robby Soave says. In fact, this review will be more about what I think he gets wrong than what he gets right. But his cutting through the bull and the baloney to get to the heart of the issue helps more than his occasionally (in my view) wrong thinking hurts. We need to avoid the politics to focus on what is at stake here. Few do. Robby Soave does.

What do I think Robby Soave gets wrong? I think he unfairly downplays the complaints of those who have been booted from platforms for their politics. He says that the social media platforms are not practicing censorship when they boot people from platforms, that only governments can censor.

But that's wrong. It's true that the First Amendment guarantee of free speech only binds the government, but any organization that has power and authority can be a censor. That is, they can suppress or prohibit publications that they consider unacceptable, without limitation. I think that's wrong.

It's important to realize that while the Constitution applies only to government action, the principles in the Constitution often apply to any authority, government or not. In some respects, the power of Big Tech is bigger than that of the government. That Big Tech should treat people who use their platforms fairly and in good faith, allowing them to speak freely (within the bounds of civility and good taste) without regard to their politics, seems a principle embedded in the spirit if not the letter of how our laws work.

That can be seen throughout both federal and state law. A number of laws use words like "good faith" and "fairness" to describe the duties companies have toward their customers. Contract law in most states implies a duty of good faith and fair dealing. Competition law at both federal and state levels talks of unfair business practices. Even Section 230 (which Robby Soave discusses at length) conditions much of its protection on internet platforms acting "voluntarily . . . in good faith" when they deplatform people.

Robby Soave doesn't discuss any of this. He doesn't mention this "good faith" qualifier when he talks about Section 230. He seems to think conservatives should stop calling for the end of Section 230 and realize how it helps them more than it hurts. That may be true, but that's not the end of the matter.

In particular, Robby Soave gives the example of Donald Trump. Sure, he was banned from Twitter for life after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. But prior to that time Twitter let him use its platform, sometimes even under pressure from liberals to cancel him. Isn't that good enough?

Well, no. As many politicians around the world noted after Twitter banned Donald Trump, a private company controlling a powerful social media platform banning the president of the United States for baldly political reasons weakens democratic values. (That Donald Trump threatened violence in his two posts that Twitter cited as the basis for banning is a silly argument.)

German leader Angela Merkel. Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. French president Emmanuel Macron. Democratic senator Bernie Sanders. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrado. None of these people have any particular love of Donald Trump. All criticized Twitter for its censoring of him. So should Robby Soave.

For the main part, though, Robby Soave gets it right. We should not fear Facebook or try to break it up. Big Tech are not big bullies that need to be chopped up and down to size. Sure, a little regulation might help stem abuses. And public pressure should be put on them to clean up their act.

But we're going too far. Robby Soave points out why in a book that stands out for its clarity among a cacophany of political authors and officials on both right and left who, like Chicken Little, see the sky falling when it really is not. (Lina Khan, that's you, too.)

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moflatley
A must read for anyone who cares about children and technology
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2022
This fascinating, accessible read is a must for anyone concerned about technology and esp as it impacts children. Hint: The problem is not what you think it is. (The "solution" probably isn't either.) As if often the case, sometimes the solutions are more simple than one might imagine, esp when hysteria has overtaken good judgement and objectivity. This should be required reading in the ongoing debate about federal regulation of the internet.

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Krystina Ehrlich
Excellent points
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2022
The book was well-written and researched, I enjoyed it immensely. It makes a really good point that we shouldn't overreact to every new technology that comes out. One quibble, on page 192 of the hardback version there's a reference to the "Dutch occupation of the Congo". It was the Belgians that occupied the Congo, Robby.

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Mandeep
Binge worthy read
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2022
The book delivers strong criticisms of anti social media ideas that one don’t often hear in the mainstream culture. A thought provoking and binge worthy read.

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