Articles by: Timothy Erik Ström

A parallel to the Cambridge Analytica scandal 'The development of powerful new means of communication has coincided, historically, with the extension of democracy and with the attempts, by many kinds of ruling groups, to control and manage democracy.' These words, written by Raymond Williams back in 1962, referred to the rise of printing in the long sixteenth century, through to newspapers in the nineteenth century, and radio and television in the twentieth century. This point…

The cyber-strategies behind the Christchurch attack Many of the best responses to the massacre in Christchurch have focused on a recog - nition of the human lives that have been torn apart by this shocking act; they are a conscious and affirmative counter to the cycles of dehumanisation that led to the rampage. Other excellent responses have sought to reckon with the social context in which such horror becomes possible - inquiries into the grinding…

Review(s) of: Surveillance valley: The secret military history of the internet, by Yasha Levine, (Public Affairs, 2018).

The third in a series of articles in Google's twentieth-anniversary year The story of Google is a telling case study in the analysis of contemporary society, reorganised as it has been by the mutations of cybernetic capitalism. The company's history has been one of deep enthralment with technology, typically cast in naive 'how-cool-is-that' terms - it is a story peppered with geeky tropes and various vacuous watchwords like 'innovation', 'entrepreneurial' and, of course, lots and…