The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity

‘Wu deftly breaks down one of the greatest challenges of our age - the unaccountable power of tech platforms - into such digestible pieces that the solutions for what to do become dead obvious’ KAREN HAO, author of Empire of AI

'Tim Wu is a titan . . . a must-read' Financial Times

Today’s dominant tech platforms – the places where we exchange information and buy things online – could be the most powerful engines of prosperity ever invented. Instead, they are the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever created and a grave threat to our societies.

Here the pre-eminent exponent of anti-monopoly law Tim Wu, who coined the phrase ‘net neutrality’, explains why breaking Big Tech’s monopolies would unleash innovation and growth and is essential if we are to avoid further social division. In their place he sets out the five key ways in which future platforms should be managed to harness the extraordinary potential of these essential technologies and to help build the balanced economies we so badly need.

‘Tim Wu's readable, passionate call is for a fairer economy where the benefits of AI can be for all of us’ DARON ACEMOGLU, co-author of Why Nations Fail

‘Wu’s proposed solutions for fixing the internet provide hope, not least because of how simple they are’ New Statesman

‘Remarkably astute and timely ... a vital book’ LINA KHAN, Former Chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

'Cuts to the core' CORY DOCTOROW, author of Enshittification

*A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2025*