Unregulated technology threatens truth, democracy, and humanity itself...
Following up his groundbreaking book Digital is Destroying Everything, Andrew Edwards nowunveils the sinister agenda of An Army of Liars, thedigitally-driven bad actors seeking to destabilize the United States by eroding the very foundations of liberal democracy with a relentless barrage of fabricated narratives and poisonous, digitally promoted misinformation.
Pulling no punches, Edwards identifies the culprits: social media platforms protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, audience targeting, real-time content recommendation, foreign state actors, and radical factions fueled by hate. Todays social media has been weaponized by enemies of the United States and hate and discord are now the currency of thousands of anonymous content providers.
Army of Liars unpacks how we got here, exactly is wrong with digital enterprise, and how to go about fixing it so that humanity may survive even in an age of artificial intelligence and digital command and control. Should we implement an engagement tax on social media platforms and generative AI? These funds could be used to help fight off the worst types of disinformation and to help fund the efforts of content creators whose work has been scraped, stolen, and reconfigured by generative AI and large language models (LLMs).
Its a safe bet the tech giants wont want to hear it. Army of Liars is designed to help humans not only survive in a digital age, but to conquer digital and prosper in an age of truth in media.
Army of Liars makes the case that the government has failed to understand or control social media companies leading to a destructive rise in disinformation so harmful that it threatens the very existence of rational discourse and liberal democracy in general. Social media companies, largely free from the regulations governing all other forms of publishing, rake in big profits and have unleashed an army of liars on the public, and we all are paying the price. In the book the author will make the connection between science deniers and the technology that drives their digital narratives. He also will also illuminate the kind of cynical manipulators who target vulnerable American populations for the sole purpose of sowing hatred for fellow citizens. The author argues that a relatively obscure law - Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act is largely to blame and should be abolished. The author offers additional solutions including the possibility of an engagement tax that could finance the fight against disinformation and renewed support of traditional, fact-checked journalism.