Invisible Rulers
The People Who Turn Lies into Reality
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
An “essential and riveting” (Jonathan Haidt) analysis of the radical shift in the dynamics of power and influence, revealing how the machinery that powered the Big Lie works to create bespoke realities revolutionizing politics, culture, and society.
Renée DiResta’s powerful, original investigation into the way power and influence have been profoundly transformed reveals how a virtual rumor mill of niche propagandists increasingly shapes public opinion. While propagandists position themselves as trustworthy Davids, their reach, influence, and economics make them classic Goliaths—invisible rulers who create bespoke realities to revolutionize politics, culture, and society. Their work is driven by a simple maxim: if you make it trend, you make it true.
By revealing the machinery and dynamics of the interplay between influencers, algorithms, and online crowds, DiResta vividly illustrates the way propagandists deliberately undermine belief in the fundamental legitimacy of institutions that make society work. This alternate system for shaping public opinion, unexamined until now, is rewriting the relationship between the people and their government in profound ways. It has become a force so shockingly effective that its destructive power seems limitless. Scientific proof is powerless in front of it. Democratic validity is bulldozed by it. Leaders are humiliated by it. But they need not be.
With its deep insight into the power of propagandists to drive online crowds into battle—while bearing no responsibility for the consequences—Invisible Rulers not only predicts those consequences but offers ways for leaders to rapidly adapt and fight back.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The viral nature of social media has made right-wing influencers the "invisible rulers" of public discourse, according to this fiery debut investigation. DiResta, a researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), starts with an insightful account of how social media's mechanics promote sensationalism, with charismatic personalities tailoring their output toward stimulating content, which gets boosted by algorithms designed to maximize engagement. The result, she contends, is a crisis of social consensus as users get isolated in delusional ideological bubbles. DiResta applies this framework to several social media controversies and campaigns, especially Trump supporters' 2020 election denialism and Covid-19 vaccine conspiracies. She also rebuts right-wing critics of social media platforms, arguing that their complaints of being censored are overblown and mainly an attempt to "work the refs." She particularly takes to task Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi, who in reporting and congressional testimony accused her and SIO of pressuring Twitter (now X) to censor millions of tweets; she calls these allegations "lies." Her small-bore recommendations—disclosure requirements for paid political speech by influencers and tweaking algorithms to boost civility over vitriol—do indeed fall short of censorship, though her call for "freedom of speech, not freedom of reach" will likely still come off as shadow-banning to her accusers. Nevertheless, it's a well-informed take on what ails social media, and a vigorous riposte to conservative narratives of persecution by Big Tech.
