The Threat of Data Colonialism

Paris Marx is joined by Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry to discuss how Silicon Valley's extractive data collection regime and the power it grants them resembles a much older form of exploitation: colonialism.

Ulises A. Mejias is a professor of Communication Studies at SUNY Oswego and Nick Couldry is a professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory at the London School of Economics. They are the co-authors of Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back and among the co-founders of the network Tierra Común.

• Read an excerpt of Ulises and Nick’s book.
• Ulises has helped advance the Non-Aligned Technologies Movement.
• The World Economic Forum and Accenture published a report on governance of AI.
• Geoffrey Hinton was one of the winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics. Paris wrote about why we shouldn’t trust his assessment of AI.
• Google told the UK Labour government it will be left behind in the AI race if it doesn’t do what the company demands.
• Data centers use 21% of electricity in Ireland, and number that could jump to 31% within the next three years.
• Home building in West London could be restricted until 2035 because data centers have used up the available energy.
• Kenya is being drafted into the US’s anti-China tech alliance, which includes building data centers while ignoring the poor working conditions of data labelers and content moderators.

• Data Vampires: Fighting for Control (Episode 4)
• Data Vampires: Sacrificing for AI (Episode 3)
• Data Vampires: Opposing Data Centers (Episode 2)
• Data Vampires: Going Hyperscale (Episode 1)