Jamie Barlett

Jamie founded the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos, where he specialises in online social movements and the impact of technology on society. He is also a regular commentator on national and international media outlets and in 2017 he presented the major BBC2 Series Secrets of Silicon Valley. His Ted Talk about the dark net has had over 3 million views.

Jamie unveils a shadowy world of Internet cultures and shares insights into key topics of our time such as cyber security, the impact of social media, and the evolution of new political movements. Jamie lights up the hidden corners of the internet to reveal the strange subcultures and protagonists that inhabit it – from Bitcoin miners to neo-Nazis.

As Head of the Violence and Extremism Programme at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos, Jamie has researched and written extensively about radical political parties and movements across Europe, with a particular focus on the role of social media and modern technology. The Centre combines automated data extraction and sentiment analysis with social science statistics, analysis and ethics in order to produce insightful and robust policy research.

Jamie’s areas of expertise range from social media monitoring and analytics, Internet culture and ‘the dark net’, crypto-currencies, surveillance technology, machine learning, automated sentiment analysis, big data, cyber privacy and law, social media research ethics, and the reform to RIPA 2000. Jamie also co-authored #intelligence with Sir David Omand, which explores the use of internet intelligence by the security services and the police.

Jamie also writes on technology for the Spectator and regularly contributes to publications on how the internet is changing politics and society, including the New York Times, The Times, the Guardian, Foreign Policy, and Prospect.