CONCEPT
Cyber-Utopianism
The <em>unwarranted assumption</em> that digital tools possess intrinsic liberatory properties independent of institutional context — the ideological framework Morozov demolished in <em>The Net Delusion</em> and whose AI-era sequel he has been tracking since 2023.
Cyber-utopianism is Morozov's name for the assumption that digital technology is inherently democratizing, that its deployment will erode authoritarian power wherever it operates, and that the appropriate stance toward it is therefore enthusiastic adoption rather than political contestation. The term became associated with Morozov's The Net Delusion (2011), which systematically documented how authoritarian regimes had converted the same digital tools dissidents relied upon into instruments of surveillance, manipulation, and targeted repression.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The framework attributes liberatory properties to the technology itself rather than to the political and institutional context in which the technology is deployed. This attribution is the ideological move: by locating the liberatory potential in the tool, cyber-utopianism directs political energy toward deploying the tool and away from the institutional work that would determine whether the tool serves liberation or repression.
The empirical record Morozov assembled was damning. Governments had built sophisticated surveillance apparatuses using the same platforms activists relied on. The identifiable users of democracy-promotion
Keep reading with YOU ON AI
Unlock the full book, 10,000+ field-guide entries, and a 1000+ thinker library. If you have a book code, register now — it takes a minute.