Mindf*ck by Christopher Wylie

Mindf*ck by Christopher Wylie

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Mindf*ck by Christopher Wylie

'Freewheeling and profane ... Wylie covers plenty of ground, explaining in illuminating and often scary detail how Cambridge Analytica exploited the data to create Facebook pages that would needle "neurotic, conspiratorial citizens", propagating an outraged solidarity.' Jennifer Szalai, New York Times What if you could peer into the minds of an entire population? What if you could target the weakest with rumours that only they saw? In 2016, an obscure British military contractor turned the world upside down. Funded by a billionaire on a crusade to start his own far-right insurgency, Cambridge Analytica combined psychological research with private Facebook data to make an invisible weapon with the power to change what voters perceived as real. The firm was created to launch the then unknown Steve Bannon's ideological assault on America. But as it honed its dark arts in elections from Trinidad to Nigeria, 24-year-old research director Christopher Wylie began to see what he and his colleagues were unleashing. He had heard the disturbing visions of the investors. He saw what CEO Alexander Nix did behind closed doors. When Britain shocked the world by voting to leave the EU, Wylie realised it was time to expose his old associates. The political crime of the century had just taken place - the weapon had been tested - and nobody knew.
Brilliant and terrifying - a dark account of the fraud and cheating behind BrexitAnd how the American alt-right, the Vote Leave government of Boris Johnson, and Russia are working together to reshape our age. -- Luke Harding * author of Shadow State *
An invaluable primer on psychological warfare and behaviour modification ... Given that Wylie was at the heart of this work, and that he displayed real sociological understanding of what the data was revealing, his account provides a useful, crystal-clear exposition of the power of psychographic profiling when it's done right. And it suggests that electoral campaigning has now moved on to a different level. -- John Naughton * The Observer *
If you want to understand the darker side of the digital revolution - and what a threat to democracy it is - you must read this book. As we watch our own democracy wavering in a blizzard of online dirty tricks I can think of nothing more relevant right now. In this astonishing insider story Wylie explains how the 'Trump revolution' and the 'Brexit Shock' were achieved by often-illegal manipulation - and proposes a series of safeguards of the digital commons for the future. I hope every citizen reads this. -- Brian Eno
Fascinating and hugely readable ... valuable and revelatory * Sunday Times *
Freewheeling and profane ... Wylie covers plenty of ground, explaining in illuminating and often scary detail how Cambridge Analytica exploited the data to create Facebook pages that would needle "neurotic, conspiratorial citizens," propagating an outraged solidarity. -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *
MindF*ck demonstrates how digital influence operations, when they converged with the nasty business of politics, managed to hollow out democracies... And his personal story, woven into the book's narrative, illustrates the confusion of our current political era as well as the challenge to Wylie's fellow members of the social media generation as they seek identities real and imagined, physical and virtual. -- Clint Watts * Washington Post *
Merits close attention, as it goes a long way to making sense of the current political landscape ... a devastating indictment of a political culture out of control -- Alastair Mabbott * The Herald *
Christopher Wylie has been called "the millennials' first great whistleblower" and "a pink-haired, nose-ringed oracle sent from the future." He is known for his role in setting up - and then taking down - Cambridge Analytica. His revelations exposing the rampant misuse of data rocked Silicon Valley and led to some of the largest multinational investigations into data crime ever.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781788164993
ISBN 10 1788164997
Title Mindf*ck
Author Christopher Wylie
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Profile Books Ltd
Year published 2019-10-08
Number of pages 288
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable