How Digital Authoritarianism Became the Default 

Approved into Submission: How Digital Authoritarianism Became the Default

By Alexious Fiero

In an era of infinite connectivity and convenience, one unsettling question looms ever larger: How did we quietly surrender our digital freedom—by design, not by force?

Approved into Submission is a sweeping exploration of the architecture, psychology, politics, and global systems that have normalized digital authoritarianism in everyday life. From "click-to-consent" rituals to predictive algorithms and platform monopolies, author and technosociologist Alexious Fiero dissects the quiet coercion embedded into our most routine interactions with the internet.

📉 The Core Argument
This book reveals how surveillance capitalism, cognitive manipulation, algorithmic governance, and opaque legal frameworks have fused into a digital regime where the illusion of choice masks structural domination. The digital world didn’t just drift into authoritarianism—it was engineered for it.

📜 What You'll Learn

• How “consent” became a checkbox exercise, hollowed out by legal jargon and dark UX patterns

• Why personalization has turned into behavioral control—and how algorithms shape belief

• The legal shields (like Section 230 and Citizens United) that protect platforms from accountability

• How predictive data, platform dependency, and attention harvesting erode civic agency

• What cognitive “armor” we can build to resist manipulation in an age of algorithmic propaganda

• Why open-source, decentralized tech, DAOs, and data cooperatives offer viable counterpower models

🌍 Global in Scope
From India’s Aadhaar system to China’s social credit regime, from DECODE in Barcelona to digital colonialism in the Global South, this book connects dots across continents to show how digital authoritarianism manifests differently—but consistently.

🔧 Blueprints for Action
This isn’t just a critique—it’s a toolkit. Included in the appendices are model policies for a Digital Bill of Rights, DAO governance frameworks, data trust templates, and civic tech standards for open governance. Activists, policymakers, educators, and digital citizens will find tangible tools for transformation.

💡 Who This Book Is For

• Readers of Surveillance Capitalism, The Net Delusion, or The Age of AI

• Civic technologists, digital rights advocates, educators, and ethical AI developers

• Concerned citizens and critical thinkers who sense something’s wrong—but need the language, data, and direction to push back

• Anyone ready to move from passive digital user to active digital steward

🎯 Why Now?
With AI systems increasingly deciding what we see, believe, and do, this book offers a vital intervention. It doesn’t just map the problem—it lights a path toward digital democracy, informed resistance, and collective empowerment.

✨ A Call to Conscious Citizenship
Approved into Submission urges readers not to retreat from the digital world, but to reclaim it. To design better systems, demand accountability, and participate in the co-creation of technologies rooted in transparency, justice, and autonomy.

Because the future of freedom isn’t just political.
It’s infrastructural.
And it’s being coded now.

Published by: Intellectual Enlightenment Press, LLC