The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control

This hit-or-miss debut account from Tablet contributing editor Siegel posits that the rise of the surveillance state after 9/11 laid the groundwork for today’s supercharged alliance between Big Tech and government. Tracing earlier attempts to use technology to manage and control local populations from the Vietnam War through the “war on terror,” Siegel pegs the Obama administration as particularly culpable for having fostered partnerships between intelligence agencies, academics, tech giants, and NGOs that led to unprecedented consolidation of power in the hands of technocrats. In response to populist movements of the 2010s, this new cohort of elites turned its tools of information warfare toward censorship under the guise of combatting Russian disinformation, Siegel contends. He also frames other recent free speech grievances on the right as part of such “information state” crackdowns, including tech companies censoring speech related to Hunter Biden’s laptop and Covid-19 vaccine skepticism, as well as the deplatforming of January 6 rioters. Though clear-eyed about the dangers of state repression in the Information Age, Siegel relies too much on insinuation and analogy to make his case. Moreover, while spotlighting the dangerous precedent set by liberal censorship of conservative speech is a provocative and original contribution, at times it feels like he’s overcorrecting, with no mention of how people on the left have been deplatformed for pro-Palestinian views, for instance. It’s a mixed bag. (Mar.)