Not so long ago the web was on the quirky edges of life, but today it is at its heart. John Naughton started out as an enthusiast, but today he joins Tom Clark to explain why it has fallen prey to corporate capture and bred a new surveillance capitalism. James Ball explains how social media has been used to brainwash voters. Meanwhile, Samira Shackle comes back from a trip to Mosul, the Iraqi city until recently under IS control, and explains how blameless citizens there are today paying the price for having been unwilling appendages to the jihaddi killing machine.

Read more:

James Ball: The ballot bots

In the digitally-connected social world, advertising blends into messaging, and into propaganda. The old distinctions don’t count.

Samira Shackle: The bureaucracy of IS

The brutal rule of IS is slowly and bloodily coming to an end after operations by Iraqi and Kurdish forces, which began in 2016 and were backed by an international coalition. Now, questions about truth and reconciliation rear their head.

John Naughton: How the internet controls you

It all creates the potential for unprecedented manipulation, and—rather suddenly—worries are piling up about how that network technology is disrupting our society, warping our children’s development, our politics and our lives.