The Networked Public: How Social Media is Changing Democracy
The book looks at how networks exert unchecked power in subverting political discourse and polarizing the public in India. Towards that, it investigates the history of misinformation and the biases that make the public susceptible to it, how digital platforms and their governance impacts the public’s behaviour in them, as well as the changing face of political targeting in a data-driven ecosystem.
The book by Amber Sinha is published by Rupa Publications. To order your copy, click here.
Networks, whether in the form of Facebook and Twitter or WhatsApp groups, are exerting immense, unchecked power in subverting political discourse and polarizing the public in India.
If people’s understandings of their political reality can be so easily manipulated through misinformation, then what role can they play in fostering deliberative democracies? Amber Sinha asks this much ignored and often misunderstood question in his book The Networked Public. In search for an answer, he investigates the history of misinformation and the biases that make the public susceptible to it, how digital platforms and their governance impacts the public’s behaviour on them, as well as the changing face of political targeting in this data-driven world.
The book weaves sharp analysis with academic rigour to show that while the public can be irrational and gullible, their actions — be it mob violence or spreading fake news — are symptoms of deeper social malaise and products of their technological contexts. The Networked Public is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how social media and the Internet is transforming democracy not only in India but across the world.
Author of the Book
Amber Sinha is a lawyer interested in technology, the Internet, and how the law engages with them. He is interested in the impact of emerging technologies on existing legal frameworks, and how they need to evolve in response. He works at the Centre for Internet and Society, where he manages programmes on privacy, big data, digital identity and artificial intelligence. Amber has taught at the National Law School of India University and at Christ University, in Bengaluru. Prior to a life in public policy, Amber worked as a corporate lawyer.
Author
Amber Sinha
Amber, Senior Programme Manager at CIS, works on issues surrounding privacy, big data, and cyber security. He is interested in the impact of emerging technologies like AI and learning algorithms on existing legal frameworks, and how they need to evolve in response. Amber can be reached at amber at cis-india dot org, and at @ambersinha07.