Sociology in Post-Normal Times

Abstract

accountability in platform governance. Social media companies already have private governance mechanisms in place to limit harmful accounts and content on their platforms, but we have very little insight into how effective these mechanisms are, or how evenly they are applied to countries around the world. Insight into these mechanisms provides a starting place for analyzing the scope and scale of the problem, and democratic governments could facilitate this transparency. Overall, Tyrants on Twitter provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary influence operations by Russia and China, making the reader aware of the myriad problems around influence operations on social media, while also discussing solutions to these challenges. Research and writing on these topics have tended to focus myopically on diagnosing the problem, and few authors have attempted to discuss solutions to these complex global challenges. Sloss’s book adds a new and interesting dimension to the solutions conversation by exploring what can be done through transnational governance arrangements and legislation. Because the challenge of foreign influence operations requires solutions across multiple levels, Sloss’s legal analysis provides a framework to start reflecting on some of the hard questions about how technology affects democracy around the world and the competing values we must weigh to achieve democratic freedom.