Digital Coup - by Darin Johnson (Hardcover)

About the Book

International lawyer, professor, and national security professional Darin Johnson exposes how tech platforms and their founders exploit political anxieties, and offers urgent solutions to combat digital polarization. Combining case studies with expert insight, this is essential reading for those concerned about truth, democracy, and the internet.

Book Synopsis

"A concise summation of digital threats to democracy." --Library Journal

"A hard-hitting investigative look at cyber warfare and various attempts to subvert Western democracies through disinformation and other means." --Booklist

"An urgent, eye-opening political science book about how authoritarian governments weaponize social media to attack democracies." --Foreword Reviews

The rise of AI and misinformation warfare is leading to racial and political polarization and democratic erosion on a global level.

We are at a unique period in world history. While advances in digital technology have brought the world closer than ever, they have also been used as tools of oppression, driving misinformation and deepening divisions. AI-generated propaganda, radicalization pipelines, and profit-driven algorithms are reshaping political landscapes, often without our awareness. How did we get here, and what can we do?

In Digital Coup, international lawyer, professor, and former national security professional Darin Johnson uses his expertise to explore how AI-driven disinformation and social media echo chambers unravel truth, deepen societal divisions, and erode democracy. Johnson walks us through the digital battleground where tech companies monetize political anxieties and extremists weaponize misinformation. He introduces us to the shadowy networks trafficking in data and disinformation, showing how AI's power is being wielded to manipulate, polarize, and exploit. This world, he argues, is shaped both by those who engineer these systems and by those who refuse to challenge them.

With clear-eyed urgency, Johnson dismantles the myth of a neutral internet and calls for a radical rethinking of our digital future. Digital Coup is a vital intervention, offering both a wake-up call and a vision for a more informed, united, and accountable online world.

Review Quotes

"Johnson, a veteran employee of the Pentagon, State Department, and White House, offers a hard-hitting investigative look at cyber warfare and various attempts to subvert Western democracies through disinformation and other means. . . . Johnson's indictment of these digital crimes is clear and concise, as he also notes credible countermeasures being taken to combat their continuing threat." --Booklist

"A concise summation of digital threats to democracy, which will be informative to non-expert readers." --Library Journal

"Timely. Trenchant. Compelling. Digital Coup masterfully highlights the political peril and existential threats posed by unraveling state and vigilante exploitation of digital technologies. Blending legal analyses with incisive prose, Johnson sounds a chilling alarm about the authoritarian and ominous actors that weaponize digital platforms to erode democracy and augment tyranny." --Khaled A. Beydoun, law professor and author of American Islamophobia

"Digital Coup offers a compelling, detailed blueprint for pragmatic, innovative, promising solutions rooted in new, enforceable frameworks to promote greater transparency, accountability, and verification systems that represent just the kind of visionary, pioneering thought leadership much needed for such a historic time as this, where the just rule of law and democracy remain in great peril." --Maurice R. Dyson, professor of law, Suffolk University Law School; author of "Combatting AI's Protectionism & Totalitarian-Coded Hypnosis" and "Algorithms of Injustice & The Calling of Our Generation"

"Digital Coup makes clear that social media's power to advance democracy, human rights, and social justice has now been co-opted by forces determined to create a more dehumanizing and oppressive world both on- and offline. Johnson engages one of the most urgent conversations of our time--how we will resist the forces that seek to destroy our democracies and our communities through the weaponization of the apps that we use every day." --Justin Hansford, law professor and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University, US Representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, and author of Jailing a Rainbow

"Digital Coup confronts a reality too few are willing to face: The digital revolution has become the new battleground for voting rights and democratic participation. With clear-eyed urgency, Johnson exposes how disinformation and AI-driven manipulation threaten the political voice of African Americans and vulnerable communities worldwide--and calls us to defend democracy on its newest front." --Spencer Overton, law professor at George Washington University, former president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and author of Stealing Democracy

"Digital Coup is a sharp critique of how technology's rapid commercialization distorts public discourse and undermines democratic values. During the Ferguson Uprising, social media became a lifeline--used to coordinate actions, share truths, and resist dominant narratives--highlighting both the power and the vulnerability of digital platforms. Johnson warns that as AI and the internet increasingly serve profit-driven interests, unchecked data manipulation and monopolized content threaten equity and justice. Digital Coup is a timely call to defend the integrity of information and the people who rely on it to organize, resist, and reimagine a better future." --Jonathan Pulphus, founder of Justice Cultivator and author of With My People