Misunderstanding the Internet provides a concise introduction to the history, sociology, politics and economics of the internet and its impact on society that stresses the importance of context in shaping and filtering the impact of the internet.This fully revised second edition responds to new developments both in the internet itself, such as state surveillance, reversals of the Arab spring, the growth of hate websites and increased commercialisation of the net, and in the surrounding research about it. This is an up-to-date polemical, sociologically and historically informed textbook that continues to challenge popular myths and existing academic orthodoxies around the internet.