Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.
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If you’re a regular listener, you already know that I’m obsessed with the radical experiment in techno-governance taking shape in China.
Two week ago, a document published by the CCP offered a new window on to that project. It’s fascinating in its own right. But the document also poses a powerful implicit challenge to those of us who live inside a liberal democracy.
Specifically, it asks us: what are you going to do about Big Tech? So this week, reflections on all that, and a first attempt at an answer.
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If you’d prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of The People’s Republic of Tech.
Links in this week’s instalment
1. The Implementation Outline for the Construction of Government Under the Rule of Law contains a bold vision for a new kind of 21st-century state.
2. This month the CCP announced action against Tencent, after claiming that WeChat does not comply with laws intended to protect minors.
3. Zuckerberg himself has said: ‘in a lot of ways Facebook is more like a government than a traditional company’.
4. Facebook won’t tell us how many people have viewed vaccine misinformation on the platform, but it’s a lot.
5. Back in Democracy Without Elections I wrote about Yale political theorist Hélène Landemore and her advocacy for a system she calls open democracy.
Be counted
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New kinds of online power are fast-forwarding us into an unfamiliar future.
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I’ll be back as usual on Wednesday; until then, be well.
David.
The People's Republic of Tech – Audio Edition