This book is about words that fool us into thinking that the digital technologies we use every day are beautiful, benign, and consequence-free. The collection shows how metaphors used by Big Tech to promote digital technologies are reductive or misleading. With a commitment to social justice, the contributors rename digital technologies in order to subvert Big Tech’s branding. Each chapter discusses a specific technology, rechristening it in a way that points explicitly to the social and political harms it is associated with. The alternative vocabularies that are proposed draw attention to what these technologies bring about, providing a means of resisting Silicon Valley’s claims about what people and organisations should buy and experience.
Robin Mansell (FAcSS, FBA) is Professor Emerita, London School of Economics and Political Science. She holds a Doctorate Honoris Causa, University of Fribourg and is recipient of the C. Edwin Baker Award (ICA Philosophy, Theory & Critique Division). Co-editor, Handbook of Media and Communication Governance (2024 Edward Elgar).
Crystal Chokshi is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. She has published critical perspectives on technologies in The Journal of Digital Social Research, Surveillance & Society, Culture Machine, Real Life, and The Conversation Canada.