The Accelerated Construction of Techno-Authoritarian Infrastructure

Are we witnessing the end of democracy and free society?

This is the first in a series of articles examining BigTech’s threats to democratic society and exploring pathways forward.

We’re living through multiple converging crises globally, yet rather than helping to address these challenges, BigTech is accelerating societal collapse. These giant technology corporations are constructing techno-authoritarian infrastructures that undermine democracy, accelerate climate breakdown, and systematically exclude marginalised communities. Journalist Carole Cadwalladr aptly calls this phenomenon the “Digital Coup.”

This is a serious accusation that demands examination. At stake are the core public values that underpin democratic society. Let’s examine how BigTech threatens our democratic foundations.

The Ten Pillars of Techno-Authoritarianism

1. Extreme Wealth Concentration Tech billionaires now command combined wealth exceeding €1.7 trillion, whilst systematically avoiding tax payments. This unprecedented concentration of economic power fundamentally undermines democratic equality and creates a new class of digital oligarchs.¹

2. Economic Extraction 80% of total spending on cloud software and services for business use in Europe goes to US companies, representing a volume of €265 billion annually. It is estimated that this sustains some 2 million jobs in the US. This extraction clearly fuels the extreme wealth concentration.²

3. Surveillance Capitalism and Mass Manipulation Through sophisticated profiling systems, BigTech monitors and influences what we see, read, buy, and vote for. The Cambridge Analytica scandal during Trump’s first presidency and Brexit campaigns exposed these practices, but rather than being curtailed, manipulation techniques have been perfected, particularly by Meta and X. It is the services from Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft that virtually everyone uses, often free of charge, while its the advertisers that pay.³

4. Patriarchal Alliances with Extreme Right Tech moguls like Elon Musk have formed explicit alliances with authoritarian movements, using their platforms to amplify extremist messaging and undermine democratic institutions. The leaders of Google, Amazon, Facebook, X, OpenAI and Palantir allied with Trump in his second mandate, rolling out their playbook to increase their power, breaking down the protection of human rights and democratic institutions one by one.⁴

5. Misinformation and the Erosion of Truth Under the guise of “free speech,” platforms have abandoned content moderation, creating vast pools of misinformation where evidence-based policy-making becomes impossible. When Musk forces all users to see his tweets regardless of following status, whilst simultaneously attacking democracies in the UK and Brazil and supporting parties like Germany’s AfD, we witness the transformation of communication infrastructure into propaganda machinery.⁵

6. Climate Denial and Escapism BigTech leaders actively promote climate change denial, preventing effective cooperation on sustainability transitions. Tellingly, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk all invest in space ventures—not for humanity’s future, but as escape routes for the ultra-wealthy, complementing their private islands and post-collapse bunkers.⁶

7. AI Hype and Resource Consumption Artificial intelligence is being hyped whilst consuming enormous energy resources. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s scenario suggests AI could consume 99% of energy by 2030, even as drinking water shortages rise exponentially worldwide.⁷

8. Algorithmic Bias and Systematic Exclusion AI systems and BigTech platforms systematically exclude marginalised communities, standardising on white male participants and perpetuating existing inequalities through algorithmic design.⁸

9. Predictive Policing Systems Combining large sets of surveillance data and other sources of personal information, these systems calculate the probability of people committing future crimes with the aim of preventing them. These systems often create a self-fulfilling prophecy, where surveillance leads to a higher perceived criminality. People of colour and marginalised communities often suffer most, whilst limiting civil liberties.⁹

10. Centralised and algorithmic military Google and Amazon contract with the IDF to contribute their datacentre and surveillance data, whilst other companies automate the surveillance-assination pipelines. In June 2025, four senior executives from Meta, Palantir, and OpenAI were directly commissioned as lieutenant colonels in the US—literal capture of military command structure by BigTech interests. These developments bring the dystopian scenarios of science fiction disturbingly close to reality. At the same time these centralised systems are more fragile for cyberattacks, and Europe suffers from weapon systems that are partially under control by the US. ¹⁰

Beyond Despair

The combination of these threats creates a profound sense of despair, with people losing hope for a better future. Without hope, many people feel paralysed whilst trying to hold on to their last privileges before the propagandised collapse. However, this trajectory is not inevitable. Alternative pathways exist—pathways that prioritise human agency, democratic participation, and sustainable development.

The construction of techno-authoritarian infrastructure is not unstoppable. But before exploring concrete solutions and pathways forward, it is essential to recognise its mechanisms and impacts as a first step toward building something better.

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References:

¹ Oxfam (2025). “Billionaire wealth surges by $2 trillion in 2024.” Forbes (2025). “The 2025 Billionaires List.”

² The Asterès economic research firm studied the economic impact of French & European companies’ purchases of US cloud software and services. https://www.cigref.fr/technological-dependence-on-american-software-and-cloud-services-an-assessment-of-the-economic-consequences-in-europe

³ Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Amnesty International (2019). “Cambridge Analytica is just the tip of the iceberg.”

⁴ German Chancellor Scholz (2025): “Musk’s support for European far-right is ‘completely unacceptable’.” AP News. France24 (2025). “Elon Musk’s tweets: Raising the profile of Europe’s far right.”

⁵ Oxford University (2025). “Majority support moderation on social media platforms, global survey shows.” PNAS (2023). “Resolving content moderation dilemmas between free speech and harmful misinformation.”

⁶ Climate Action Against Disinformation (2024). “How Big Tech Enables Climate Disinformation in a World on the Brink”. Rushkoff, D. (2022). “Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires.”

⁷ Schmidt, E. (2024). “Former Google CEO urges AI acceleration, dismisses climate goals.” Computing. Inequality.org (2024). “AI’s Energy Demands Are Fueling the Climate Crisis.” The Register (2025). “Datacenter energy usage to more than double in next 5 years.” Washington Post (2024). “AI industry to Congress: ‘We need energy’ to fuel race with China.”

⁸ UN Human Rights (2024). “Racism and AI: ‘Bias from the past leads to bias in the future’.” Cambridge Judge Business School (2023). “The dark side of AI: algorithmic bias and global inequality.”

⁹ The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on “Street Level Surveillance” and “Predictive Policing”, https://sls.eff.org/technologies/predictive-policing

¹⁰ DefenseScoop (2025). “‘Growing demand’ sparks DOD to raise Palantir’s Maven contract to more than $1B.” The Intercept (2024). “Project Nimbus Contract Ties Google, Amazon to Israel Arms Firms.”