The authoritarian tendencies of Silicon Valley: “Machines to spread disinformation”
The close entanglement of Big Tech and the populist right in the United States is cause for concern, says UvA professor Natali Helberger. She will be a guest at Spui25 on Wednesday afternoon to talk about the subject. “Technology is never, ever, ever neutral.”
Tech giants such as Elon Musk are cooperating ever more closely with Donald Trump’s government. This worries Natali Helberger, professor of Law & Digital Technology at the UvA. She is one of the speakers invited to the meet-up The alliance between tech and autocracy at Spui25 on Wednesday afternoon, organised by De Groene Amsterdammer.
“I have been following the discussion about the political economy of the internet for a long time, and we are now seeing large digital platforms playing an increasingly important role in our society. This means our norms and values are being influenced more strongly and more directly,” says Helberger. “That is worrying because many of the tech bosses at the head of these companies have not only joined Trump for economic reasons, but are also ideologically on his side. They have no interest in themes such as inclusion, equality and diversity and see in Trump a president who is willing to go a long way in these areas. Through him, they see an opportunity to anchor their ideology even more deeply in society.”
Superiority
Helberger is therefore not surprised that Silicon Valley has been showing its most right-wing side recently. “We could have seen this mixing of worlds coming. That big tech companies were very right-wing was already apparent before the Me Too movement, from opinion pieces written in those circles and the philosophy that was applied. Being smart, fast, strong and entrepreneurial is glorified to the extreme. People think in terms of superiority; not only the superiority that technology has to offer us, but also the superiority of certain groups of people.”
These are beliefs that have been circulating in the tech industry for some time, and which have been revived with Trump’s re-election, Helberger believes. And so, according to her, we must ask ourselves: what kind of new reality will this lead to? “Technology is interwoven with everything we do, which is why it is very important to realise that technology is never, ever, ever neutral,” she emphasises. “Decisions and value judgements always precede it, and these seep into its use. Now that society is increasingly driven by technology, there is a chance that the right-wing ideals of its suppliers will influence every element of our society.”
She gives an example: “The Trump administration is actively working to ban diversity policies, while algorithmic bias is a major problem in the tech sector. If you ask generative AI to show you a medical specialist, you often get shown a white man. Because the system is fed with biased data and is not corrected for diversity, we also see biased output. The content we are presented with on social media is also determined by such unfiltered algorithms, which means that new ideas about freedom of speech are mainly interpreted as more freedom for right-wing radical content by people like Elon Musk.”
Helberger emphasises that AI is not necessarily an inherent danger, but it does involve a lot of risks. “If the systems are not properly moderated, they become machines for spreading disinformation and harmful content. They also lure people away from quality media. Algorithms are designed to be addictive, and thus come at the expense of reading the newspaper or a book.”
Technological alternatives
Helberger is convinced that the main motivation for tech bosses like Musk and Zuckerberg is still an economic one. “Their main goal is not to spread their ideology, but to make profit. That is why it is so important that we are aware of the risks their companies pose. The rest of the world can send a clear message and show that we have our own technological alternatives, such as Nextcloud, an open source alternative to Google Docs. But there must be a demand for it, which is why it is crucial that we take a critical look at ourselves and our use of these technologies.”
And that is happening, to a certain extent at least, Helberger says. “In the Netherlands too, there are definitely more and more voices that think we should be more independent from America when it comes to technology,” she says hopefully. “Whether it's in a role as a citizen, journalist, scientist or politician, we have all kinds of ways to make different choices and exert influence. We will have to create the demand for our own technological infrastructure by continuing to talk about the risks of the current tech climate.”
The alliance between tech and autocracy can be attended on Wednesday afternoon at 5 p.m. at Spui25. In addition to Natali Helberger, various politicians and journalists from De Groene Amsterdammer will also speak on the subject.
