The manipulators

In “The Manipulators,” a new essay in the Los Angeles Review of Books, I explore two much-discussed documents published earlier this year: “Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion Through Social Networks” by Adam Kramer et al. and “Judgment in Case C-131/12: Google Spain SL, Google Inc v Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de Datos, Mario Costeja Gonzalez” by the Court of Justice of the European Union.The latter, I argue, helps us make sense of the former. Both challenge us to t...