Large numbers of Indians - over an estimated 300 million citizens with internet-enabled mobile phones at present - have been receiving unprecedented amounts of fake, false, half-true, hateful, inflammatory (or incendiary) information in the recent past and are going to receive more such information during the general elections, the results of which will be known on 23 May 2019. The so-called WhatsApp army of the right-wing ruling regime has been 'weaponised' to influence political outcomes. Facebook and its sister social media platform, WhatsApp, are not really neutral and agnostic as they claim they are. They have been complicit in promoting the interests of Narendra Modi and his supporters in the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for some time now, well before Modi became Prime Minister of India in May 2014. Even as the world's largest social media organisation of its kind is increasingly being questioned in different countries, this book takes a critical look at the working of Facebook and WhatsApp in India.

Governments, businesses, and individuals around the world are thinking about what happens after the COVID-19 pandemic. Can we hope to not only ward off another COVID-like disaster but also eliminate all respiratory diseases, including the flu? Bill Gates, one of our greatest and most effective thinkers and activists, believes the answer is yes. The author of the #1 New York Times best seller How to Avoid a Climate Disaster lays out clearly and convincingly what the world should have learned from COVID-19 and what all of us can do to ward off another catastrophe like it. Relying on the shared knowledge of the world’s foremost experts and on his own experience of combating fatal diseases through the Gates Foundation, Gates first helps us understand the science of infectious diseases. Then he shows us how the nations of the world, working in conjunction with one another and with the private sector, how we can prevent a new pandemic from killing millions of people and devastating the global economy. Here is a clarion call—strong, comprehensive, and of the gravest importance.

One of the Best Technology Books of 2020—Financial Times “Levy’s all-access Facebook reflects the reputational swan dive of its subject. . . . The result is evenhanded and devastating.”—San Francisco Chronicle “[Levy’s] evenhanded conclusions are still damning.”—Reason “[He] doesn’t shy from asking the tough questions.”—The Washington Post “Reminds you the HBO show Silicon Valley did not have to reach far for its satire.”—NPR.org The definitive history, packed with untold stories, of one of America’s most controversial and powerful companies: Facebook As a college sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network. Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from its first, modest iteration. In light of recent controversies surrounding election-influencing “fake news” accounts, the handling of its users’ personal data, and growing discontent with the actions of its founder and CEO—who has enormous power over what the world sees and says—never has a company been more central to the national conversation. Millions of words have been written about Facebook, but no one has told the complete story, documenting its ascendancy and missteps. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life, or the imperative of this book to document the unchecked power and shocking techniques of the company, from growing at all costs to outmaneuvering its biggest rivals to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram, to developing a platform so addictive even some of its own are now beginning to realize its dangers. Based on hundreds of interviews from inside and outside Facebook, Levy’s sweeping narrative of incredible entrepreneurial success and failure digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.

Kirkpatrick tells us how Facebook was created, why it has flourished, and where it is going next. He chronicles its successes and missteps.

'Political technology' is a Russian term for the professional engineering of politics. It has turned Russian politics into theatre and propaganda, and metastasised to take over foreign policy and weaponise history. The war against Ukraine is one outcome. In the West, spin doctors and political consultants do more than influence media or run campaigns: they have also helped build parallel universes of alternative political reality. Hungary has used political technology to dismantle democracy. The BJP in India has used it to consolidate unprecedented power. Different countries learn from each other. Some types of political technology have become notorious, like troll farms or data mining; but there is now a global wholesale industry selling a range of manipulation techniques, from astroturfing to fake parties to propaganda apps. This book shows that 'political technology' is about much more than online disinformation: it is about whole new industries of political engineering.

A stereotype image of Nara Chandrababu Naidu has been formed in the last 40 years. His story is remarkable at every level. But often questions, which is the important story? The one where he evolves into one of the extraordinary leaders in Indian politics over four decades? Or that of an ordinary man from a farming family who worked his way to the top by keeping his family and political party together? That which reflects his political acumen, intellect, and hardwork? Or the one that unveils the person who introduced Andhra Pradesh to India? This book attempts to show how Naidu has been a quintessential survivor in Indian politics. This book analyses how Naidu's ability to combine politics and governance has touched every aspect of Indian domestic and foreign policy, from the struggle for social, technological, economic and administrative reforms to creating world-class institutions. It establishes the fact that Naidu, today, is a symbol and an embodiment of many Indias - modern, progressive, rural and cultural.