The Tyranny of Big Tech.

• Author: Feeney, Matthew

The Tyranny of Big Tech

Josh Hawley

Washington: Regnery, 2021, 207 pp.

Many Americans first learned of Senator Joshua Hawley (R-MO) in the wake of the January 6 assault on the Capitol. Before the assault began, an E&E News photographer took a photo of Hawley with his left fist raised looking toward protestors as he headed to the Capitol. About an hour later some of those protesters would storm the Capitol in an unprecedented attack on American democracy. After law enforcement had secured the Capitol, the Senate reconvened. Senators debated an objection to Arizona's electoral votes before rejecting it in a 93-6 vote. Hawley was among the six senators to vote for the objection.

Hawley's actions on January 6th were a reminder that the junior senator from Missouri had been positioning himself as one of President Donald Trump's most dedicated supporters. But Hawley's support for Tramp extends well beyond electoral campaign theatrics. Like Trump, Hawley has been rejecting the Republican Party's expressed commitment to limited government and the market economy. Perhaps nowhere else is this rejection better displayed than the ongoing Republican criticism of "Big Tech" firms such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. Hawley's latest book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, seeks to outline concerns about these companies and provide families and lawmakers with responses. The book's discussions of worries associated with "Big Tech" firms raise legitimate concerns, and its political analysis will be of value to those interested in the future of the Republican Party. However, its policy recommendations are unconvincing. Ironically, it is the market economy and limited government that Hawley, Trump, and their fans decry that offer the most robust responses to their concerns.

One of the most striking features of Hawley's book is how much of it reads much like books from the political left. Passages of the book bemoaning Big Tech's snooping, addictive products, and the effect of social media on mental health sound very much like chapters from Surveillance Capitalism, a best-selling tome by Harvard professor Shoshana Zubofif, who is hardly a populist conservative. Those who have watched Netflix's documentary "The Social Dilemma" will be able to see many of its criticisms mirrored in Hawley's book.

The most affecting portions of the book are those in which Hawley describes the disturbing mental health effects social media can have on many people (especially young girls). You do not have to be a conservative to be alarmed by the rise...