The Death of Truth

How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed to Destroy Trust and Polarize the World—and What We Can Do

By: Steven Brill

Narrated by: Dan Woren

How did we become a world where facts—shared truths—have lost their power to hold us together as a community, as a country, globally? How have we allowed the proliferation of alternative facts, hoaxes, even conspiracy theories, to destroy our trust in institutions, leaders, and legitimate experts? Best-selling journalist Steven Brill documents the forces and people, from Silicon Valley to Madison Avenue to Moscow to Washington, that have created and exploited this world of chaos and division—and offers practical solutions for what we can do about it.

"A precise description of the punishment cell we have built around our minds and the first few steps back towards light and air."–Timothy Snyder, Author of On Tyranny and Professor of History, Yale University

“A seminal, ground-breaking, documented and honest examination of two of the central dilemmas of our time—what is truth and where to find it.”—Bob Woodward, associate editor at The Washington Post

As the cofounder of NewsGuard, a company that tracks online misinformation, Steven Brill has observed the rise of fake news from a front-row seat. In The Death of Truth, with startling, often terrifying clarity, he explains how we got here—and how we can get back to a world where truth matters.

None of this—conspiracy theories embraced, expertise ridiculed, empirical evidence ignored—has happened by accident. Brill takes us inside the decisions made by executives in Silicon Valley to code the algorithms embedded in their social media platforms to maximize profits by pushing divisive content. He unravels the ingenious creation of automated advertising buying systems that reward that click-baiting content and penalize reliable news publishers, and describes how the use of these ad-financed, misinformation platforms by politicians, hucksters, and conspiracy theorists deceives ordinary citizens. He documents how the most powerful adversaries of America have used American-made social media and advertising tools against us with massive disinformation campaigns—and how, with the development of generative artificial intelligence, everything could get exponentially worse unless we act. The stakes are high for all of us, including Brill himself, whose company's role in exposing Russian disinformation operations resulted in a Russian agent targeting him and his family.

Crucially, Brill lays out a series of provocative but realistic prescriptions for what we can do now to reverse course—proposals certain to stir debate and even action that could curb the power of big tech to profit from division and chaos, tamp down polarization, and restore the trust necessary to bring us together.

©2024 Steven Brill (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“With a front row seat in the battle against disinformation, Steven Brill has produced another riveting narrative based on his trademark, trailblazing reporting. The Death of Truth is the definitive story about a world in crisis and a prescription for how to fix it. From Silicon Valley to Madison Avenue to the Capitol on January 6 to Moscow (where Russian security agents directed threats against him), Brill has pulled together in one story all the forces that have pulled us apart”–Jill Abramson, former Executive Editor, The New York Times

“A seminal, ground-breaking, documented and honest examination of two of the central dilemmas of our time—what is truth and where to find it.”—Bob Woodward, associate editor at The Washington Post and author of fifteen #1 New York Times best sellers

"A deep dive into the muck of fake news...Brill, author of The Teamsters and America’s Bitter Pill, examines the “toxic mix” of misinformation, disinformation, myths, alternative “facts,” and conspiracy theories that have proliferated online, leading to a lack of belief in shared truths, distrust in the legitimacy of science and expertise, and an erosion of our sense of community.... Underscoring the acute need for reform, the author offers suggestions, including amending Section 230 to account for dangerous algorithms, ending online anonymity, directing the Federal Trade Commission to enforce providers’ contracts with users to protect them from harmful content, and bolstering online news and information literacy for K-12 students...A brisk, well-informed, and urgent message."—Kirkus Reviews

The power behind Section 230

The unscrupulous tactics of power brokers, to keep the public scurrying for the equitable benefits offered by these charlatans; via the ruse called Section 230, are packaged with many tentacles of deception at its core; without the "good of the people" as it's primary purpose. The gullibility of the public is very 😔. The article is enlightening and disheartening all at once.

Required Reading

This is a must read if you’re looking for reasons for the mess we are in.

Eye Opening

Brill captures the general sense of what is going on on social media platforms. Capital T Truth has been eroded and erased and tossed to the way side. It is not limited to one party or the other and a lot of this falls on the idea that social media platforms will police and regulate themselves (which they don’t) somehow all the misrepresentation and deception and twisting of info has to be stopped. It is so frustrating everyday to go on and see out and out blatant lies about info online and they are trying to sway public opinion

It’s all about follow the money with programmatic advertising.

If it bleeds it leads
People are polarized and social media is making it worse

Just OK

OK but seemed a bit padded with extensive quotes. Also, the solution to democracy’s truth problem seems to be purchasing a license from author’s company for a product that provides journalistic guardrails. Maybe so, but comes off like a very long advertisement.