This was the deeper meaning of Edward Snowden's revelations of US and UK security services' data-gathering in 2013. Suddenly, citizens became aware that today's pervasive state surveillance would be impossible without the continuous social-caching operations of commercial corporations. Since then, fears of a new "corporate governance of everyday life" have been growing. But other fears have started to overtake them, including the "fake news" scandals that have gripped politics since late 2016 in the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere. There are also fears that, because of polarizing forces online, "social media is ripping society apart"; fears from other commentators of a social dystopia driven by platforms' search for advertising income; and, finally, the fear that the targeting of news via social media platforms represents "the most lethal political weapon ever invented." Calls for the regulation of social media platforms and other information technology giants are becoming familiar. But none of these highly charged debates answers the underlying question on which this book will focus: should human beings in the twenty-first century accept a world in which their lives are unceasingly appropriated through data for capitalism?

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 40