A brilliant, original analysis of the radical shift in the dynamics of power and influence, revealing how the machinery that powered the Big Lie works to create bespoke realities revolutionizing politics, culture, and society.

Renée DiResta’s powerful original framing explains how public opinion is now shaped through a virtual rumor mill of niche propagandists. While they position themselves as trustworthy Davids, their reach, influence, and economics make them classic Goliaths, invisible rulers who create bespoke realities that control the destinies of millions of people, their work driven by a simple maxim: “if you make it trend, you make it true.”

By revealing the machinery and the dynamics of the interplay between influencers, algorithms, and online crowds, DiResta vividly illustrates the way belief in the fundamental legitimacy of institutions that make society work is deliberately undermined. This alternate system for shaping public opinion, unexamined until now, is rewriting the relationship between the people and their government in profoundly disturbing ways. It has become a force so shockingly effective that its destructive power seems limitless. Scientific proof is powerless in front of it. Democratic validity is bulldozed by it. Leaders are humiliated by it.

With its deep insight into the power of these propagandists to drive online crowds into battle–while bearing no responsibility for the consequences–Invisible Rulers predicts the consequences unless leaders figure out how to rapidly adapt and fight back to restore our sanity and our society.