Already before Obama left his office, it seems that China was trying to take over
the role of the world’s leading superpower. At the G20 summit in Hangzhou in
September 2016, Obama was denied the usual red carpet treatment.
40 Before this
happened, on April 30, 2016, Obama had warned the world
41 :
“… this is also a time around the world when some of the fundamental ideals
of liberal democracies are under attack, and when notions of objectivity, and
of a free press, and of facts, and of evidence are trying to be undermined. Or,
in some cases, ignored entirely.
And in such a climate, it’s not enough just to give people a megaphone.
And that’s why your power and your responsibility to dig and to question and
to counter distortions and untruths is more important than ever”.
This hinted at the upcoming post truth era,
42 which apparently took over after the
control of the Internet was given to ICANN at the end of September 2016.
43 It
seems this cleared the way for a highly personalized Internet (using surveillance
data about all of us). The development was complemented by two laws allowing for
(counter-)propaganda.
44 I believe, we have been in a kind of information war
45 ever
since. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal,
46 we know how much this development has challenged democracies all over the world.
40
Barack Obama ‘deliberately snubbed’ by Chinese in chaotic arrival at G20, The Guardian
(September 4, 2016) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/04/barack-obama-deliberatelysnubbed-by-chinese-in-chaotic-arrival-at-g20.
41
“Obama out”: President Barack Obama’s hilarious final White House Correspondents’ Dinner
speech (April 30, 2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxFkEj7KPC0; see also https://
obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/01/remarks-president-white-housecorrespondents-dinner.
42
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-truth_politics.
43
An Internet Giveaway to the U.N., Wall Street Journal (August 28 2016) https://www.wsj.com/
articles/an-internet-giveaway-to-the-u-n-1472421165.
44
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith–Mundt_Act, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countering_
Foreign_Propaganda_and_Disinformation_Act.
45
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_warfare; ‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological
warfare tool’: Meet the data war whistleblower, The Guardian (March 18, 2018) https://www.
theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nixbannon-trump; Before Trump, Cambridge Analytica quietly built “psyops” for militaries,
FastCompany (September 25, 2019) https://www.fastcompany.com/90235437/before-trumpcambridge-analytica-parent-built-weapons-for-war.
46
The Cambridge Analytica Files, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/
cambridge-analytica-files.
xiv
Prologue
the role of the world’s leading superpower. At the G20 summit in Hangzhou in
September 2016, Obama was denied the usual red carpet treatment.
40 Before this
happened, on April 30, 2016, Obama had warned the world
41 :
“… this is also a time around the world when some of the fundamental ideals
of liberal democracies are under attack, and when notions of objectivity, and
of a free press, and of facts, and of evidence are trying to be undermined. Or,
in some cases, ignored entirely.
And in such a climate, it’s not enough just to give people a megaphone.
And that’s why your power and your responsibility to dig and to question and
to counter distortions and untruths is more important than ever”.
This hinted at the upcoming post truth era,
42 which apparently took over after the
control of the Internet was given to ICANN at the end of September 2016.
43 It
seems this cleared the way for a highly personalized Internet (using surveillance
data about all of us). The development was complemented by two laws allowing for
(counter-)propaganda.
44 I believe, we have been in a kind of information war
45 ever
since. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal,
46 we know how much this development has challenged democracies all over the world.
40
Barack Obama ‘deliberately snubbed’ by Chinese in chaotic arrival at G20, The Guardian
(September 4, 2016) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/04/barack-obama-deliberatelysnubbed-by-chinese-in-chaotic-arrival-at-g20.
41
“Obama out”: President Barack Obama’s hilarious final White House Correspondents’ Dinner
speech (April 30, 2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxFkEj7KPC0; see also https://
obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/01/remarks-president-white-housecorrespondents-dinner.
42
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-truth_politics.
43
An Internet Giveaway to the U.N., Wall Street Journal (August 28 2016) https://www.wsj.com/
articles/an-internet-giveaway-to-the-u-n-1472421165.
44
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith–Mundt_Act, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countering_
Foreign_Propaganda_and_Disinformation_Act.
45
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_warfare; ‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological
warfare tool’: Meet the data war whistleblower, The Guardian (March 18, 2018) https://www.
theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nixbannon-trump; Before Trump, Cambridge Analytica quietly built “psyops” for militaries,
FastCompany (September 25, 2019) https://www.fastcompany.com/90235437/before-trumpcambridge-analytica-parent-built-weapons-for-war.
46
The Cambridge Analytica Files, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/
cambridge-analytica-files.
xiv
Prologue