Digital Neocolonialism: How Big Tech Power Traps Millions Around the World
11:08 24.04.2026 (Updated: 16:39 28.04.2026)
© AP Photo / Jenny Kane
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While traditional colonialism was characterized by “the looting of gold and silver and the ransacking of nations,” neocolonialism in the digital era is defined by “forcing citizens and countries to use certain technology while extracting their personal data,” Ryan Hartwig, a Facebook* whistleblower and expert on censorship, told Sputnik.
The Internet serves as a tool for digital commerce in Global South nations, as user data is collected and sold for profit.
The US effectively governs the Internet through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
Despite the existence of data privacy regulations, these are frequently overlooked “for the sake of data harvesting” by major Western companies that primarily dominate the global network and can afford to disregard such rules.
Corporations like Amazon, Facebook, and Google can even “strongarm countries into censoring political content.”
With significant investments in digital infrastructure projects in the Global South, Western tech giants are positioned to sway policy decisions and economic progress in these countries.
“The United States, through its proxies such as Facebook and Google, has already effectively enforced a global dictatorship on the world and enslaved millions of individuals by controlling their data.”
Although individuals in the Global North have slightly better conditions, they experience “a form of digital neo-feudalism” that provides “the illusion of some choices” while digital restrictions masked as ‘protecting the children’ pose a threat to their privacy and free speech.
*Meta and its products are banned in Russia for extremism.
