Terms Of Disservice

Hardly a day goes by without new headlines about the dark side of digital technology. Many of those headlines concern the role of social media companies in distributing false and misleading information that inflames social and political divides and even helps sway elections. Facebook, Google, and Twitter, once seen as creating an engaged, positively interconnected global community, are now facing harsh criticism. Under pressure, they are finally beginning to recognize and curb the misuse of their products by extremist groups and other malicious actors.

In this new world of ubiquitous technology and the seemingly endless nefarious uses for it, how can individuals, institutions and governments harness its positive contributions while protecting each of us, no matter who or where we are?

In Terms of Disservice, Dipayan Ghosh looks into the future to uncover how we can use technology to create an open and equitable global economy - one that protects every citizen of the world.

'With subject expertise and lively writing, Dipayan Ghoshprovides a rare and important examination of the underlying problems of BigTech today: the business models.'
‰ÛÓCecilia Kang, New York Times

'Terms of Disservice follows the money itself in part by re-conceiving the "currency" of this marketplace ‰ÛÓ not just as cash transactions, but asconstant, frictionless, ever increasing payment sucked up by platform firms inthe form of users' engagement, attention, and data.'
‰ÛÓAndy Fitch, Los Angeles Review of Books

'One of the greatest challenges to confronting misinformation anddisinformation is being able to define the problem in the first place‰ÛÓand Ghoshhelps us to follow the money. We won't begin to solve this urgent problemunless we confront the market incentives that make it not just viable, but profitable.In this book, Ghosh helps us take a big leap forward in understanding thebusiness model that underpins fake news‰ÛÓand how we can start to do somethingabout it.'
‰ÛÓRobby Mook, Campaign Manager, Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential run

'Terms of Disservice bravely goes after the root of all internet evil‰ÛÓtheconsumer surveillance business model, a dire threat to our privacy, democracy,and way of life.'
‰ÛÓBruce Reed, Former Chief of Staff, Then Vice President Joe Biden

'Lively, visual, and relentlessly clear-eyed, Terms of Disservice offers adisturbing evidence-backed portrait of a digital economy now cursed bycatastrophic success.'
‰ÛÓJonathan Zittrain, George Bemis Professor of International Law, Harvard LawSchool

'Powerful internet platforms, driven by a ruthless commercial logic, havecaused tremendous harm in the United States and around the world. Withtechnological sophistication and crystal-clear writing, Terms of Disserviceprovides the analytical tools necessary to understand the structural roots ofthis crisis and the policies we need to confront it. Anyone who thinksdemocracy is worth saving should read this compelling book.'
‰ÛÓVictor Pickard, Professor of Media Policy, University of Pennsylvania

'Ghosh's deep knowledge of the way digital companies undermine our cognition,agency, and democracy is scary but required reading. Thankfully, his deep faithin the ability of government and civil society to develop a new social contractmakes this a hopeful and actionable proposal.'
‰ÛÓDouglas Rushkoff, Professor of Media Theory, Queens College and authorof Team Human

'Terms of Disservice addresses the big picture of social media‰ÛÓboth its placein our national economy and its corrosive effect on the individual. Ghoshconcludes with a proposal for a social contract that preserves the strengths ofsocial media while respecting the autonomy of the individual. The result is aroadmap for policymakers‰ÛÓwe can only hope that they pay attention.'
‰ÛÓStephen B. Wicker, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CornellUniversity

'Terms of Disservice is frankindictment of the big tech in weakening democratic societies. Ghosh'sdiagnosis, and treatment, of the ills provide a credible roadmap for Indianregulators to step in where the US regulators have failed to. With lax datalaws in the country, it's a necessary read to understand our immediate future.'
‰ÛÓNeyaz Farooquee, BBC World Service, and author ofAn Ordinary Man's Guide to Radicalism

'If you want tounderstand how and why disinformation has swept the globe, imperilingdemocracies and encouraging mob violence, read this book. As Dipayan Ghoshbrilliantly tells it, the leaders of the revolutionary social mediacompanies‰ÛÓFacebook, Twitter, YouTube and the rest‰ÛÓbuilt their machines andbusiness models to favor lies over truths and hatred over comity. With engaginganecdotes and searing analysis, he turns his insider‰۪s experience into exactlythe kind of diagnosis and policy recommendations we desperately need. If there‰۪s just onebook you read about the power of social media corporations over our lives andpolitics‰ÛÓand the new social contract needed to reform them‰ÛÓlet it be Ghosh'sphenomenal Terms of Disservice!'
‰ÛÓDana Priest, Pulitzer-prize winning Washington Post reporter and professorof journalism at the University of Maryland

'With so much disinformationonline today, users might forget the Internet was meant to be a democratizingforce. Terms of Disservice answers how we got here, serving asa detailed blueprint of the strategic moves made by Facebook, Twitter andGoogle over the last 10 years and their ongoing influence reshaping societiesand political discourse across the world. A former Facebook policy adviser,Ghosh's insight, paired with extensive expert testimony, offers readers a clearunderstanding of the most complex issues facing social media companiestoday.'
‰ÛÓCourtney Norris,National Affairs Reporter and Producer, PBS NewsHour

'Terms of Disservice provides adisillusioned analysis of our dystopian relationship with big tech. Some of thenews stories and anecdotes will be familiar, but this sweeping book stringsthem together brilliantly to expose the market, regulatory, and algorithmicforces buried underneath. And just when you think there's no way out, authorDipayan Ghosh offers a hopeful path forward.'
‰ÛÓShachar Bar-On,Producer, 60 Minutes, CBS

'It is now beyond doubt that the consumerinternet ecosystem‰ÛÓdriven by capitalism and largely unchecked by governments‰ÛÓhas created a breeding ground for misinformation and the exploitation of ourdata. In Terms of Disservice, Dipayan Ghosh not only reveals thehidden motivations of major global tech firms but also lays out a detailedframework for how to regulate these behemoths in the future. This is anessential book for policymakers and general readers around the world.'
‰ÛÓRavi Agrawal, Editor-in-Chief of ForeignPolicy and author of India Connected: How the Smartphone IsTransforming the World‰۪s Largest Democracy

'Ghosh's book, enriched by hisreal-world experience in tech and government, could not be more timely as theout-of-control internet increasingly enables anti-democratic, anti-competitiveand other destructive forces. It should be priority reading for anyone lookingto understand the trends at work and how social media can and must bereimagined to ensure both a vibrant global economy and the common good.'
‰ÛÓCarol Giacomo, journalist andformer member of The New York Times Editorial Board

'In a superbly crafted book,Dipayan Ghosh lays out the rise‰ÛÓand the perils‰ÛÓof big tech. To the layreader, Terms of Disservice provides an accessible insight into how the rise ofconsumer internet has upended the world as we knew it, empowered but alsoundermined the fundamental rights of citizens, and expanded but also threateneddemocracy. To policymakers, it provides a robust proposal for a new socialcontract which addresses the dangers emanating from the business model ofselect big tech firms. And to world at large, Ghosh shows how ethicalimperatives, technological leaps, economic progress and democratic functioningcan and must coexist. And if it does not, the idea that citizens must, throughtheir free will, choose governments, in the backdrop an honest public sphere,will be further jeopardised. This is must-read for those engaged in theworld of tech policy, but beyond that, for any one who wants to understand hownew structures of corporate power are shaping the world of politics, economy,and everyday life‰ÛÓoften with terrifying consequences. And there can be fewbetter chroniclers of this shift than Ghosh who has straddled, with greatdistinction, the worlds of tech, academia and policymaking.'
‰ÛÓPrashant Jha, Editor, Views, Hindustan Times