The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley

  • Book Session
  • CPDP Book Club
  • Cinema
  • Thursday 22.05 — 14:15 - 15:30

In The Tech Coup, Marietje Schaake offers a behind-the-scenes account of how technology companies crept into nearly every corner of our lives and our governments. She takes us beyond the headlines to high-stakes meetings with human rights defenders, business leaders, computer scientists, and politicians to show how technologies—from social media to artificial intelligence—have gone from being heralded as utopian to undermining the pillars of our democracies. To reverse this existential power imbalance, Schaake outlines game-changing solutions to empower elected officials and citizens alike. Democratic leaders can—and must—resist the influence of corporate lobbying and reinvent themselves as dynamic, flexible guardians of our digital world.

Marietje Schaake

Stanford - United States

Marietje Schaake is international policy director at Stanford University Cyber Policy Center and international policy fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and author of  The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley (Princeton University Press; Sept 2024). Between 2009 and 2019, she served as a Member of European Parliament for the Dutch liberal democratic party where she focused on trade, foreign affairs, and technology policies. Marietje writes a monthly column for the Financial Times and serves on the UN’s AI Advisory Body. She is an (Advisory) Board Member with a number of non-profits including MERICS, ECFR, ORF and AccessNow.

Paul De Hert

LSTS, VUB

Paul De Hert is professor of law at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is the Director of the research group on Fundamental Rights and Constitutionalism (FRC) and senior member of the research group on Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS). Paul De Hert is also associated-professor Law and Technology at the Tilburg Institute for Law and Technology (TILT).

Esther Keymolen

TILT, Tilburg University

My name is Esther Keymolen and I am a full Professor at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society. I also am the Head of TILT. I have a background in philosophy of technology and postphenomenology. I also hold a Bachelor’s degree in pop music. My research focuses on the role of trust, trustworthiness and privacy in networked and smart environments. In particular, I focus on the first-person perspective, so what does trust and trustworthiness mean for a user of an AI application.  In my book Trust on The Line, I developed a conceptual trust model, which I apply to analyze different topical cases, such as: Airbnb, smart cities, smart toys, digital hotel keys, and personalized online advertisement.  My work has also appeared in several newspapers, documentaries, and on Dutch television. Previously, I worked for the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) and at Leiden University (eLaw, Centre for Law and Digital Technology)