Users: How Big Tech Took Control and How to Fight Back

by Beeban Kidron

We need to regulate Big Tech. But the money and influence concentrated in Silicon Valley makes it an unfair fight. Baroness Beeban Kidron shows us what resistance looks inside the rooms behind closed doors, and in the halls and corridors of power.

WE ARE NOT USING TECHNOLOGY. TECHNOLOGY IS USING US.

In USERS, legislator and campaigner Beeban Kidron takes you on a journey from the halls of Parliament and the UN to the White House and Silicon Valley. Through her encounters with specialist police officers, bereaved parents, lobbyists and tech bros, you’ll witness the unchecked power of Big Tech, as they avoid rules and regulations, and capture governments that are meant to protect us.

You’ll see how the issue is not technology itself, but its use and abuse. How tools built to connect people are redeployed to divide, punish, distract, and control; while our tech overlords come to own everything – but continue to be held responsible for nothing. Now that we know their game, it's time to fight back.

This book will show you what went wrong, what is really going on, and what we can do about it.

'A thrilling story of how democracies can respond to the world’s most powerful industry, told by the woman who is leading the charge.' Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation

'Kidron brings the insider knowledge of a legislator and the storytelling instincts of a filmmaker to one of the most urgent crises of our time.’ Tristan Harris, co-founder of Center for Humane Technology

'Beeban has spent her life watching what Big Tech does to childhood. We fight the same battle. USERS is her reckoning and her we must demand better – but only if we have the courage. Read it. Then join our fight!' Maria Ressa, journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

‘This book will help us understand how high the stakes are and how we can fight back.’ Sir Elton John and David Furnish

Beeban Kidron 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Genres: Nonfiction

Audible Audio

Published June 25, 2026

Reviews

[Jojo · Rating 4 out of 5]

„A child or young person is drawn into patterns of digital use that are difficult to resist or control - gaming loops, endless scrolling, streaks, notifications, habitual checking.
These patterns are not accidents of personality or parenting.
They are deliberate features, designed to capture attention and to override developing self-control and the need for interruption, rest and self-direction. Features that create a foreseeable risk.
Compulsion is not a choice.”

[Nikki Hexum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved "Users" by Beeban Kidron. It is inspiring and heartbreaking in almost equal measure, because it forces us to confront how much we have allowed technology to reshape our lives, our children, our culture and even our sense of human agency, often without ever truly choosing it.

But what stayed with me most was that the book is ultimately hopeful. Kidron does not treat the power of technology companies as inevitable or permanent. She reminds us that these systems were built by people, that the rules governing them were choices, and that different choices are still available to us.

This book feels especially important right now. The scale and power of the companies shaping our digital world can make resistance feel almost futile. "Users" is a reminder that it isn’t. Power changes when people recognize their collective agency and decide that the status quo is no longer acceptable.

I finished the book frustrated by how much we have already surrendered, but genuinely inspired by what remains possible. We are not powerless. We can demand better systems, better laws, better technology and a future in which human beings are not simply “users” to be measured, manipulated or monetized.

Ultimately, that was the hope I took from this book: we can still act, and we can act together.

[Julian Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Supremely well written and argued, this is a chilling example of the harmful impact that technology companies have on society - especially the young.

Made even more scary by the current US Leader’s refusal to impose controls on tech and AI development, this book lays out the blueprint for what can go (and is indeed going) wrong with addictive social media feeds.

Hugely insightful and well written, everyone should read this book.

[Michael McEvoy · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

Incredibly well researched and detailed book that looks deeply at the realities of Big Techs influence in our world, the devastating effect on our children, and the destructive way it is changing all human interactions. Beeban is a true warrior for positive change who has been bravely confronting these issues for many years.Beeban Kidron