Dot Common Sense

Renowned podcaster and New York Times bestselling author of Burn Book Kara Swisher joins forces with Imran Ahmed, the founder/CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Harm, to deliver a must-read manifesto for taking down the Technokings and taking back the internet.

Some 250 years after Thomas Paine published his revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense, Americans once again find themselves living under tyranny. Not since the days of King George III has this country seen a greater concentration of wealth and power than that amassed by the Technokings—the preferred job title of Elon Musk.

For three decades, the tech companies have been allowed to self-regulate. They’re grading their own homework and giving themselves A+’s. Dot Common Sense is a call to action to demand the internet we were promised and deserve. With original research from the Center for Countering Digital Harm, this book exposes what the tech companies have been trying to hide. It explains how users can resist the manipulation of the algorithm and regain their privacy, data, and safety. And for lasting change, it also proposes a Digital Bill of Rights that every politician and citizen—who isn’t a sociopathic billionaire—should support.

Swisher and Ahmed love tech. They are not calling for a ban on social media, but for better social media. One that prioritizes bringing people together instead of tearing us apart. One that protects the vulnerable instead of targeting our children and scamming our seniors. One that delivers cute photos of pets without drip-feeding hate into our frontal cortex.

And what’s more American than fighting tyranny and mounting a revolution? To quote Thomas Paine: “The time has found us.”