From the New York Times bestselling author of Nudge and The World According to Star Wars, a revealing account of how today's Internet threatens democracy—and what can be done about it

As the Internet grows more sophisticated, it is creating new threats to democracy. Social media companies such as Facebook can sort us ever more efficiently into groups of the like-minded, creating echo chambers that amplify our views. It's no accident that on some occasions, people of different political views cannot even understand each other. It's also no surprise that terrorist groups have been able to exploit social media to deadly effect.

Welcome to the age of #Republic.

In this revealing book, Cass Sunstein, the New York Times bestselling author of Nudge and The World According to Star Wars, shows how today's Internet is driving political fragmentation, polarization, and even extremism—and what can be done about it.

Thoroughly rethinking the critical relationship between democracy and the Internet, Sunstein describes how the online world creates "cybercascades," exploits "confirmation bias," and assists "polarization entrepreneurs." And he explains why online fragmentation endangers the shared conversations, experiences, and understandings that are the lifeblood of democracy.

In response, Sunstein proposes practical and legal changes to make the Internet friendlier to democratic deliberation. These changes would get us out of our information cocoons by increasing the frequency of unchosen, unplanned encounters and exposing us to people, places, things, and ideas that we would never have picked for our Twitter feed.

#Republic need not be an ironic term. As Sunstein shows, it can be a rallying cry for the kind of democracy that citizens of diverse societies most need.

来自《纽约时报》畅销书《Nudge》和《星球大战的世界》的作者，揭示了当今互联网如何威胁民主--以及对此可以采取的措施。

随着互联网的日益成熟，它正在给民主带来新的威胁。Facebook等社交媒体公司可以更有效地将我们分为志同道合的群体，形成放大我们观点的回声室。在某些情况下，不同政治观点的人甚至无法理解对方，这并非偶然。恐怖组织能够利用社交媒体达到致命的效果也不奇怪。

欢迎来到#共和国的时代。

在这本具有启发性的书中，《纽约时报》畅销书《Nudge》和《星球大战中的世界》的作者卡斯-桑斯坦（Cass Sunstein）展示了今天的互联网是如何推动政治分裂、两极分化甚至是极端主义的，以及可以做些什么。

孙斯坦彻底反思了民主和互联网之间的重要关系，描述了网络世界如何创造 "网络级联"，利用 "确认性偏见"，以及帮助 "极化企业家"。他还解释了为什么网络碎片化会危及作为民主命脉的共享对话、经验和理解。

作为回应，孙斯坦提出了实际的和法律上的改变，以使互联网对民主讨论更加友好。这些变化将使我们走出信息茧房，增加未经选择、未经计划的接触的频率，使我们接触到我们永远不会在Twitter上选择的人、地方、事物和想法。

#共和国 "不一定是一个讽刺性的术语。正如孙斯坦所展示的，它可以成为多样化社会的公民最需要的那种民主的集结号。