🔎 Important new article this week in Jacobin magazine.
It's an important awakening (or reminder) that #US policy continues a multi-front attack on #humanRights and digital autonomy by continuing to strengthen #bigTech and #surveillanceCapitalism through fearmongering and the spectre of whatever country the boogeyman-of-the-quarter might be. 1/4
jacobin.com/2022/06/us-tech-co…
Biden’s Campaign for “Digital Democracy” Is Really a Giveaway to Big Tech
The United States claims it benevolently promotes democracy over authoritarianism through its international technology policies. In reality, America forces poor countries to let US-based Big Tech companies steal their data.jacobin.com
Michael Downey 🚩
in reply to Michael Downey 🚩 • • •⚠️ The article rightly points out the thin line between national "#digitalTransformation" & "digital #authoritarianism" -- through governments, or the corporations those they coddle/empower.
It also reminds us that for non-US leaders, "increasingly, the biggest threat to the future of the internet is the United States".
(Including nonprofits, who've increasingly been exposed in building and deploying systems that are misused to abuse human rights like privacy.)
2/4
jacobin.com/2022/06/us-tech-co…
Biden’s Campaign for “Digital Democracy” Is Really a Giveaway to Big Tech
jacobin.comMichael Downey 🚩
in reply to Michael Downey 🚩 • • •💡 It leaves out the important reminder that many of the #digitalPublicGoods used to create this so-called "public #infrastructure" have their roots in #FreeSoftware, which allows citizens to control of their own "digital lives" without government or quasi-government corporate #surveillance as intermediary.
e.g., I may have a Chinese-made phone sold with Google's #Android spyware, but because it's #OpenSource I am free to install a privacy-protecting OS instead.
3/4
jacobin.com/2022/06/us-tech-co…
Biden’s Campaign for “Digital Democracy” Is Really a Giveaway to Big Tech
jacobin.com