After the independence of the Maghreb countries, the old resistance fighters used to say that "colonialism left through the door only to return through the window," and now it is returning in new forms of dominance through the window of digital colonialism. This control is evident in the acquisition of major technological and media companies, while the South is still looking for an alternative.
Who am I?
I am all the things they wanted to be and couldn’t be,
so they created me.
I am the child of their dreams and frustrations,
the marvellous toy that represents all they might have done. (1)
No one could have imagined that the story I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury, published in 1969 as a reflection on life-mimicking machines, would decades later describe the essence of the dialectical relationship between people in the Global South and the virtual world. Here, all their emotions, thoughts, and data mix into a vessel of the dreams and ambitions of those who invented these virtual spaces. Bradbury’s metaphor gains credibility in our world, as machines today do not resemble digital platforms as neutral tools but rather as advanced, complex extensions of hegemony.
Free Basics app seemed like a philanthropic project to Facebook’s founder was perceived by the Indian people as a digital colonial project that restricts their digital freedom
Ten years ago, Mark Zuckerberg visited the Indian village of Chandauli, bringing what he believed was a gift to the developing world: the Free Basics app, marketed as a charitable window opening up the internet to millions. However, what seemed like a philanthropic project to Facebook’s founder was perceived by the Indian people as a digital colonial project that restricts their digital freedom (2).
Facebook initially named the app "Internet.org," but after Indian activists highlighted the risks associated with it due to limited access to websites and Facebook's dominance, which later rebranded as "Free Basics," the debate intensified. Protests against the app reached the streets (3), prompting India's telecom regulator to ban it under internet neutrality laws (4), reinforcing the right to unrestricted internet access.
“Ten years ago, Mark Zuckerberg visited the Indian village of Chandauli, bringing what he believed was a gift to the developing world: the Free Basics app, marketed as a charitable window opening up the internet to millions. However, what seemed like a philanthropic project to Facebook’s founder was perceived by the Indian people as a digital colonial project that restricts their digital freedom.”
This confrontation later led to in-depth discussions about who controls access to data and how digital capabilities have become the new frontier for power. While some advocate for "media freedom," reality shows that control over information continues to expand as the global North takes control of major media institutions and technology companies.
In this unequal landscape, can the global South claim its share of digital power, or are we witnessing a new form of colonisation where control over data becomes akin to the de facto dominance of digital imperialism?
A Hope for the Global South, or a New Colonial Trap?
When Facebook first emerged in 2004 (5), it was welcomed as a promising arena for freedom of expression and an interactive space where voices could transcend borders. Year after year, with the introduction of new social media platforms, the alluring promise of shared digital power is presented to users, as the stories and experiences of people from around the world converge, offering new pathways for social connection. This transformation was seen as a glimmer of hope for the global South, providing new alternatives to break the traditional media’s dominance and its monopoly on their narratives.
The global South has witnessed remarkable experiences where social media platforms played a pivotal role as tools for mobilisation and communication during protests, such as the Arab Spring and popular uprisings in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. However, this hope quickly dissipated as these platforms became part of a system controlled by invisible empires.
American spy agencies want to read your blogs, track your Twitter updates, and even check your book reviews on Amazon. This is part of a broader effort within intelligence agencies to enhance the use of open-source intelligence." (6) This was the headline of WIRED magazine’s exclusive 2009 revelation about the investment by In-Q-Tel, a venture arm of the CIA, in Visible Technologies, a company specialising in online social monitoring.
The global South has witnessed remarkable experiences where social media platforms played a pivotal role as tools for mobilisation and communication during protests, such as the Arab Spring and popular uprisings in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. However, this hope quickly dissipated as these platforms became part of a system controlled by invisible empires.
According to Lewis Shepherd, a former senior technology officer at the Defence Intelligence Agency, the CIA relies on tech companies to keep pace with the rapidly evolving landscape of social media platforms. Intelligence officers often struggle to track constantly shifting trends on these platforms, given the ever-changing preferences of international internet users regarding their preferred sites. Shepherd notes that with over 70% of Facebook users located outside the United States and more than 200 non-English and non-American blogging platforms similar to Twitter, it would be negligent for the intelligence community to overlook this massive real-time flow of global information (7).
Over the past decade, In-Q-Tel has made numerous public investments in companies specialising in analysing large datasets online. These include 38 previously undisclosed companies funded by the CIA’s venture capital arm, many of which are developing tools for mining social media platforms. Furthermore, other companies backed by In-Q-Tel now openly adopt these practices (8).
As these digital platforms evolve, so does their functional structure. What the global South once perceived as an unrestricted space has now transformed into a vast empire, devoid of equitable exchange of ideas and voices. In this context, we are not witnessing an egalitarian digital world but rather a new form of colonialism, where digital spaces are exploited to reinforce colonial mindsets, deepening the divide between the global North and South.
The implications of digital power must therefore be examined. While we are inundated with rhetoric about freedom of expression and human rights, such ideals are seldom realised.
This is how digital colonialism manifests—through the dominance of American tech companies over software, hardware, and internet infrastructure. This modern form of colonialism, led by corporations like Google and Amazon, curtails digital sovereignty and exacerbates global inequalities (9).
Israel’s ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza has reignited discussions about the silencing of pro-Palestinian voices on social media platforms. These voices face digital repression whenever Israel is criticised, particularly in the global South.
The Palestinian narrative increasingly infiltrates digital algorithms through creative and subversive methods. People in the global South have adapted by writing without diacritical marks and using symbols and alternative expressions as encrypted forms of resistance to evade algorithmic censorship.
In December 2023, Human Rights Watch confirmed in a report that the censorship of Palestinian-related content on Instagram and Facebook constitutes systematic and global suppression. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has a documented history of extensive suppression campaigns for content related to Palestine (10).
As protests against unjust agricultural laws in India grew in February 2024, protesters and supporters found themselves also constrained by social media platforms; access to news about their protests was restricted, not merely as a technical error but as a policy of systematic digital repression. Subsequently, X (formerly Twitter) acknowledged deleting accounts and posts related to the farmer protests in India, explaining that the accounts and posts were blocked solely within India "in compliance with orders" from the Indian government (11).
Macbride: The Fading Dream of Media Justice
In 1977, UNESCO convened an international committee to address issues in media, aiming to identify disparities in communication flows and the one-directional infrastructure of media condemned by representatives from the Global South. The organisation decided to form a committee to study the problems of media and the unfair flow of communications, consisting of representatives of 15 countries, led by Sean MacBride - a politician, journalist, and activist who served as Ireland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and was a co-founder of Amnesty International.
In 1980, the committee presented its final report, titled Many Voices, One World: Towards a New, Fairer, and More Efficient Global System for Information and Communication (International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, 1980), including over 80 recommendations for expanding information freedom and creating a balanced and effective global media system based on international research and training potential. The report warned against the unequal flow of information, which could facilitate the dominance of powerful forces over media, melting local cultures into a dominant consumer culture, thus threatening the freedom and democracy of the global media and communication sector. It noted that global communications between the Global South were virtually nonexistent (12). Despite the unanimous approval of the committee's report at the 21st General Conference of UNESCO in Belgrade, the organisation later dissolved the MacBride Committee following criticism from the United States and the United Kingdom, condemning the report as an attack on "press freedom," leading UNESCO to disassociate from its findings (13). Since then, the world has borne the cost of retreating in the face of colonial powers' dominance over the media and communication sector, culminating in US control over technology and digital platforms.
Technology on the Shoulders of the Global South
Digital colonialism extends beyond data extraction and monitoring to the systematic exploitation of the Global South’s resources. The Global South is treated as a source of cheap labour and essential raw materials to support the wealthier technological powers.
The Global South has become a fertile ground for technology giants seeking cheap digital labour. Countries across the South provide low-cost workforces for data annotation in artificial intelligence, call centre operations, and content moderation for platforms like Facebook.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo provides a stark example, supplying more than 70% of the world’s cobalt - a critical component for batteries used in cars, smartphones, and computers. Behind this supply chain lies a grim reality involving child labour; 14 Congolese families have filed lawsuits against major companies such as Apple, Tesla, Alphabet, Dell, and Microsoft, accusing them of ruthless exploitation of child labour and complicity in their deaths after being forced to work in cobalt mines (14).
Lithium tells a similar story. It is another vital component of modern technology, and countries such as Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia are home to some of the largest lithium reserves in the world. Yet, the wages of workers in these mines remain a fraction of what their counterparts in the Global North earn.
In Chile, miners earn between $1,430 and $3,000 per month, while salaries in Argentina range from $300 to $1,800. In 2016, Bolivia set the minimum monthly wage for miners at just $250. This is a stark contrast to the situation in Australia. This country also holds significant lithium reserves, where miners earn up to $9,000 per month, with some making as much as $200,000 annually. These wage disparities expose the persistent global hierarchy established by colonial powers, despite the gruelling conditions and risks faced by miners in Latin America.
The Global South has become a fertile ground for technology giants seeking cheap digital labour. Countries across the South provide low-cost workforces for data annotation in artificial intelligence, call centre operations, and content moderation for platforms like Facebook.
In this “digital laundromat,” content moderators are tasked with cleaning social media platforms of their most harmful material, such as videos of violence, gruesome crimes, and explicit sexual content. This often leaves many moderators emotionally and psychologically scarred. Despite a pay increase, a content moderator in India may still earn no more than $3,500 annually - a modest improvement over the previous average of $1,400 per year. The relentless extraction of raw materials, the continued exploitation of the Global South’s resources, and the treatment of human labour as a cheap commodity epitomise exploitation in service of the Global North’s capital interests (15).
Can the South Break Free from the North’s Grip?
Despite the pervasive digital dominance, there remains hope that the Global South can resist this new colonialism. Numerous companies in the media technology field have begun developing platforms that leverage modern technologies to serve the narratives of the South. For instance, China’s resistance to digital censorship and the controversial yet impactful platform TikTok demonstrate that independent digital spaces can be built with the right political will and technological capability. Similarly, the Chinese application WeChat (16) became the world’s largest independent mobile app in 2018, with over a billion monthly active users (17).
Despite the pervasive digital dominance, there remains hope that the Global South can resist this new colonialism. Numerous companies in the media technology field have begun developing platforms that leverage modern technologies to serve the narratives of the South.
In Africa, countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal have initiated local digital media platforms, such as Pulse Africa. These applications (18) reflect the South’s ability to offer successful models based on the interests and priorities of their people, free from Western control.
Thus, the Global South finds itself trapped once again, but this time behind screens, systems, and within a space presumed to be free yet laden with barriers in the Southern context. Stories, truths, and cultures suffocate in a digital world where we are merely users and the used, drawn to the allure of these platforms that dominate our daily lives. Despite the pleasure of exploring these platforms, the feeling that unseen forces control our thoughts, culture, and identity sets the boundaries for us. We know this truth: we are still crying out in a space that has never truly been ours.
References
- Bradbury, R. (1969). I sing the body electric! Stories. Page 160.
- Bhatia, R. (2016, May 12). The inside story of Facebook’s biggest setback. The Guardian. Retrieved September 28, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/12/facebook-free-basics-india-zuckerberg
- Rai, S. (2016, January 9). In India, fierce opposition builds against Facebook’s free basics. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2016/01/04/in-india-fierce-opposition-builds-against-facebooks-free-basics/
- Jazeera, A. (2016, February 9). India blocks Facebook’s Free Basics App. Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 28, 2024, from https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2016/2/9/india-blocks-facebooks-free-basics-app
- Meta. (2024). Company info. About.meta.com; Meta. Retrieved September 28, 2024, from https://about.meta.com/company-info/
- Shachtman, N. (2009, October 19). EXCLUSIVE: U.S. spies buy stake in firm that monitors blogs, tweets. WIRED. Retrieved September 28, 2024, from https://www.wired.com/2009/10/exclusive-us-spies-buy-stake-in-twitter-blog-monitoring-firm/
- Ibid
- Fang, L., & Fang, L. (2016, April,14). The CIA is investing in firms that mine your tweets and Instagram photos. The Intercept. Retrieved September 26, 2024, from https://theintercept.com/2016/04/14/in-undisclosed-cia-investments-social-media-mining-looms-large/#:~:text=Photos%20%2D%20The%20Intercept-,The%20CIA%20Is%20Investing%20in%20Firms%20That%20Mine%20Your%20Tweets,tools%20to%20mine%20social%20media.
- Kwet, M. (2019). Digital colonialism: US empire and the new imperialism in the Global South. Race & Class, 60(4), 3-26. Retrieved September 28, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396818823172
- Younes, R. (2023 December 21). Meta’s broken promises. In Human Rights Watch. Retrieved September 24, 2024, from https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/12/21/metas-broken-promises/systemic-censorship-palestine-content-instagram-and
- Henry, B. N. (2024, February 22). India farmers’ protest: X admits to taking down posts and accounts. Retrieved September 24, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68366859
- WACC | The MacBride Report legacy and media democracy today. (n.d.). https://waccglobal.org/the-macbride-report-legacy-and-media-democracy-today/
- Wikipedia contributors. MacBride report. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 21, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBride_report
- (2019, December 17). Tesla, Apple among firms accused of aiding child labor in Congo. Arab News. Retrieved September 29, 2024, from https://www.arabnews.com/node/1600156/amp
- Transnational Institute. (2021, March 04). Digital colonialism: The evolution of US empire - Longreads. Longreads. Retrieved September 22, 2024, https://longreads.tni.org/digital-colonialism-the-evolution-of-us-empire
- https://www.wechat.com/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeChat
- https://pulse.africa/
