Welcome to the personal website of Emerson T. Brooking, home of Interesting Times, a blog about policy, technology, and life in the 21st century.
Buy my book, LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media, out now.
Email me, emerson at etbrooking.com.
Recent Posts:
You can also find a collection of my published works. My writing has been featured in the Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and Popular Science.
Recent Publications:
The Election Hackers Are Back – and They’re Starting with the US Midterms
In the final days before the 2018 U.S. Midterm Elections, social media platforms remain at serious risk of targeted viral misinformation. While Silicon Valley had taken some preparatory actions, the U.S. government has done essentially nothing. With P.W. Singer. (The Guardian)
The World Has Entered an Age of Conflict with Real World Results
The spread of viral misinformation has become a dangerous public health crisis, akin to the spread of contagions past. This crisis must be answered with a strong emphasis on information literacy. With P.W. Singer. (The Globe and Mail)
How October 7th, 2016 Shaped the Course of American History
Reflection of the two-year anniversary of the Access Hollywood scandal. Far from sinking the Trump political campaign, it showed how social media had thrown all the old rules of American politics out of the window. With P.W. Singer. (Rolling Stone)
The Machines That Will Fight the Social Media Wars of Tomorrow
Thanks to artificial intelligence, discerning "fact" and "fiction" on the internet is about to get a whole lot murkier. Which side will prevail? Excerpted from LikeWar. With P.W. Singer. (Gizmodo)
What Clausewitz Can Teach Us About War on Social Media
As the internet has transformed so much of human society, so it has transformed the ways and means of conflict. Perception matters as much as reality. Sufficient manipulation of that perception can achieve a war-like objective without firing a shot. With P.W. Singer. (Foreign Affairs)
Here’s China’s Massive Plan to Retool the Web
How China embraced the internet on its own terms, giving rise to a dangerous new form of cyber-authoritarianism in the process. Worse is yet to come. Excerpted from LikeWar. With P.W. Singer. (Popular Science)