Digital Dystopia
-
Jean Tirole
- American Economic Review (Forthcoming)
Abstract
Autocratic regimes, democratic majorities, private platforms and religious or
professional organizations can achieve social control by managing the
flow of information about individuals' behavior. Bundling the agents' political, organizational or religious attitudes with information about their prosocial conduct
makes them care about behaviors that they otherwise would not. The incorporation of the individuals' social graph in their social score further promotes
soft control but destroys the social fabric. Both bundling and guilt by association are most effective in a society that has weak ties and is politically docile.
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