Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation

In this incisive history and analysis of social media, Marantz, a New Yorker staff writer since 2011, illuminates the gap between what the internet was meant to be and what it has become. Drawing on interviews with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs as well as key figures in the alt-right, Marantz shows how extremists, trolls, and other “gate crashers” have exploited the internet’s free and democratic space to propagate lies, spread hate, and radicalize the alienated. The main question now, Marantz says, is what the creators of social media can do to reverse the communication crisis they unwittingly helped bring about. Marantz will be in conversation with Evan Osnos, New Yorker staff writer and author of Age of Ambition.