Prospect

Google and Facebook’s surveillance capitalism. Plus: What comes after IS?     Open this email as a web or plain text version. Add us to your safe senders list.     From the moment the internet first opened for semi-public use in 1983, it evoked semi-Utopian dreams. But something went wrong. Today, five corporate giants have captured the open space, creating the potential for unprecedented manipulation. John Naughton asks how we lost the web. James Ball examines the remarkable political influence held by online “bots.”  Samira Shackle writes on Islamic State: its brutal rule is slowly and bloodily coming to an end, but the people of Mosul continue to suffer. Sarah Manavis examines the curious way in which immigration can preserve old dialects. The great Philip Ball argues that Frankenstein—first published 200 years ago this month—has been misunderstood by modern critics, who claim it is a cautionary tale about scientific meddling. Actually, it is nothing of the sort. In the brand new episode of “Headspace,” Naughton, Ball and Shackle discuss their pieces—and the ideas behind them—with Tom Clark. Listen here.  Alex Dean Deputy Digital Editor

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY How the internet controls you John Naughton Corporate giants have created an entirely new surveillance capitalism. And we're too hooked to care Read more »

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY The ballot bots: as our politics goes online, can our laws keep up? James Ball They didn't swing Brexit. In fact, most of them seem to be German. But make no mistake: they’re real, they’re over here and they’re spreading poison Read more »