Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

by Anne Applebaum

Modern autocrats take information and ideas seriously. They understand the importance not only of controlling opinion inside their own countries but also of influencing debates around the world.

Of course the problem runs deeper: none of these campaigns would have any chance of success if the social media platforms that host them were not so easy to game. Reform of these platforms is a vast topic, with implications that range well beyond foreign policy, and the resistance even to a civilized discussion of social media regulation is enormous. The platforms are among the wealthiest and most influential companies in the world and, like the companies that benefit from money laundering, they lobby against change; so do many politicians, especially on the far right, who find the current system amenable. Together, they have prevented any productive debate, even as online conversation has grown markedly worse.

Unlike their twentieth-century predecessors, today’s autocrats cannot impose censorship easily or effectively. Instead, they have focused on winning audiences, building support for their messages by channeling resentment, hatred, and the desire for superiority. We have to learn to compete while preserving and promoting our own values. That means breaking the autocrats’ monopoly on the use of strong emotions, connecting to audiences with the issues that concern them the most, and above all showing how the fight for truth leads to change.

Truth has to be seen to lead to justice.

The risks of overdependence on trade with Russia, China, or other autocracies aren’t just economic. They are existential.