Could technology be the "powerful and gentle" despot by which Tocqueville saw democracy disappear?

This book endeavors to answer a simple question: the industrial revolution brought us wealth and democracy, but what is the digital revolution bringing us? Its effects may very well run as deep as its 19th century ancestor: a more flexible, more creative economy, while universal communication revitalizes democracy. While the picture it paints is very appealing, there is more to it than meets the eye. Because the digital universe is a radically inegalitarian economy. Moreover, it is inexorably undemocratic.