The bulk of this short book is a transcript of a 2011 interview Julian Assange gave to Eric Schmidt and a few of his fellow Google A chilling, scrupulously documented book that exposes Google's close ties with the U.S. It buries the lie that Google is a benign corporation run by a group of extremely wealthy but essentially well-intentioned libertarian tech geeks who "do no evil". government (including the NSA and State Department) and the tech company's dystopian vision for a "new world order". This extraordinary book tells the story of that unlikely encounter, and its significance for us all.moreĪ chilling, scrupulously documented book that exposes Google's close ties with the U.S. In June 2011, the North and South poles of the Internet came together in the English countryside for an historic dialogue. The difference between the paths taken by Assange and Schmidt was illustrated subsequently by their responses to the Snowden disclosures: while WikiLeaks aided the whistleblower's escape, Google scrambled to manage a public relations backlash after the revelation that it had taken money from the NSA to process spying requests from the US government. These are vital counterpoints for anyone interested in where the Internet-and by extension human civilization-is heading. In cutting prose, Assange denounces this world-view as "technocratic imperialism" and offers a stringent critique of its methods, goals and effects. In contrast, Schmidt’s contribution equates progress with the geographic expansion of Google, supported by the US State Department. By coupling the intellectual content of a document to its online name-doing away with the haphazard URL system-Assange outlines a potential future for the Internet that would make it faster and much more difficult to censor. What emerges is the clearest and most sophisticated picture of the philosophy behind WikiLeaks to date.Īssange proposes a radical overhaul of the naming structure of the Internet, one which would revolutionize the way information is accessed. The book also includes an edited transcript of the conversation with Schmidt in which Assange outlines the way WikiLeaks works and why it is so significant for governments and corporations. Both fascinating and alarming, it contains extensive, new material, written by Assange specifically for this book, providing the best available summary of his vision for the future of the Internet. The book also includes an edited transcript of the conversation with Schmidt in which Assange out When Google Met WikiLeaks presents the story of Assange and Schmidt's encounter. When Google Met WikiLeaks presents the story of Assange and Schmidt's encounter.
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