Bit Tyrants
The Political Economy of Silicon Valley
This is the first comprehensive book from a radical left perspective on the rising power of the Silicon Valley tech sector, and above all the five dominant empires of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon. An ocean of liberal ass-kissery dominates analysis of these giants, along with some right-wing scorn for their less-than-arch-conservative vetting of News Feed sources and Google Search algorithms. Every day we grow more dependent on our phones and apps to do our chores, our jobs, and our socializing. And every quarter the enormous corporate giants of Big Tech take over more sectors of the economy. With the growing reliance on this industry it's time crack the code of the economic dynamics that drive these companies to become near-monopolies very early, and the unique forms of "platform power" each once possesses. As Silicon Valley rises to become co-dominant with Wall Street in the halls of corporate power, this book playfully dissects the tech monopolies with humor and a plan to secure our privacy and expand our freedom--socializing the Big Tech platforms.
Rob Larson is Professor of Economics at Tacoma Community College and author of Bleakonomics and Capitalism vs. Freedom from Zero Books. He writes for a variety of venues including Jacobin, In These Times, Current Affairs and Dollars & Sense.
