A-Infos (en) Brazil, OSL: Big Tech, Information Control, and Capitalism (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Silicon Valley is the name given to a region located in California, 
United States, where the headquarters of the largest and most powerful 
high-tech companies, such as Meta and Amazon, are located. In recent 
decades, so-called Big Tech has become one of the strongest forces in 
the global bourgeoisie, dominating fields such as communications, 
entertainment, real estate, transportation, military development, 
finance, and commerce. In Forbes' list of the ten richest people in the 
world for 2024, seven are from the technology sector, with four leading 
the list: Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, X) - who could soon become the 
world's first trillionaire -, Larry Elisson (Oracle), Jeff Bezos 
(Amazon), and Mark Zuckerberg (Meta). In seventh and eighth place are 
Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Alphabet Inc., owner of Google), and 
finally, in tenth place, is Steve Ballmer (Microsoft).

Giant technology companies dominate the global flow of information and 
interactions and consolidate unprecedented power over the political, 
economic, and intellectual-moral structures of society, thus 
contributing to the dominance of the statist-capitalist system. This 
technological control is fundamental to the advancement of neoliberalism 
worldwide, serving to dismantle state regulations, weaken social rights, 
expand the reach of far-right ideology (xenophobia, misogyny, 
LGBTphobia, racism, etc.), and deepen social fragmentation, weakening 
the class struggle.

Big Tech and Imperialism
The largest technology conglomerates are largely concentrated in the 
United States. Notable names include Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, 
Airbnb, Uber, and OpenAI.

One of the most powerful is certainly Alphabet, which includes brands 
like Google, with its email service (Gmail), mapping services (Google 
Maps, Google Earth, Waze), cloud storage services (Cloud Drive), 
browsers (Chrome), video streaming services (YouTube), operating systems 
(Android), and much more. Other companies controlled by Alphabet include 
Chita and Verily, in the biotechnology and healthcare sectors, and 
CapitalG and GV, in the venture capital sector. Alphabet's power is so 
pervasive that it was the target of a monopoly lawsuit filed by the U.S. 
State Department, potentially forcing it to break up and sell some of 
its brands.

Another prominent Silicon Valley giant is Meta, which has become a 
benchmark in the social media field, owning Facebook (3 billion users 
worldwide), Instagram (2 billion), WhatsApp (2 billion), and Threads 
(300 million). In 2020, it was the Big Tech company that invested the 
most in lobbying to influence the U.S. Congress, spending approximately 
$19.7 million.

In 2013, Edward Snowden's revelations about PRISM, a U.S. National 
Security Agency (NSA) operation launched in 2007 following the passage 
of the Protect America Act under the Bush administration, became public. 
This operation initiated a mass surveillance scheme of the global 
population through the monitoring of phone calls, credit card 
transactions, and internet activity (searches, emails, etc.), including 
social media. Several files indicated active collaboration with the U.S. 
government by Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, and Meta. The documents also 
indicated that then-President Dilma Rousseff and Petrobras were under 
surveillance.

In 2017, the United States launched Project Maven, focused on processing 
military data, initially in collaboration with Google. Later, the main 
partners became Palantir Technologies, Amazon Web Services, ECS Federal, 
L3Harris Technologies, Maxar Technologies, Microsoft, and Sierra Nevada. 
This is an artificial intelligence (AI) system geared toward military 
operations, greatly enhancing strike capabilities-with the help of 
algorithms, it can strike hundreds to thousands of targets per hour 
without the need for large numbers of human personnel on the ground. In 
other words, the extermination of individuals and groups that the US may 
consider enemies, threats, and/or terrorists. A system similar to the 
use of AI in military operations is being used by Israel and Ukraine.

In 2022, Google was accused of secretly developing Project Vivian, which 
aimed to combat unionization efforts among the company's employees. A 
2019 lawsuit filed by current and former employees exposed the company's 
anti-union practices and the company's hiring of IRI Consultants, a 
consulting firm designed to combat unionization efforts. This wasn't an 
isolated incident; other Big Tech companies like Facebook, Microsoft, 
Amazon, Apple, and Uber also conspired to sabotage their employees' 
unionization efforts or, in the case of Uber, create justifications for 
dismissal or lockouts.

Several Big Tech companies have collaborated with the State of Israel in 
its apartheid policies against the Palestinian people, such as Alphabet 
and Amazon, which were selected to provide Israeli government agencies 
with cloud computing services, including artificial intelligence and 
machine learning. Another company, Airbnb, is accused of allowing the 
rental of properties in Zionist settlements in the occupied Palestinian 
territories.

The Elon Musk Case
The world's richest man, Elon Musk, owns a number of technology 
companies, including Tesla, which has become a benchmark in clean 
energy, including electric cars and solar panels, and SpaceX, the 
largest in space exploration. The billionaire is also involved with 
companies such as X (social network), the Boring Company (tunneling), 
Neuralink (neurotechnology), and xAI (artificial intelligence).

Contrary to his pro-free-market rhetoric, according to The Times , Elon 
Musk has benefited from approximately $4.9 billion in U.S. government 
support, including subsidies, tax breaks, factory construction, 
discounted loans, and environmental credits. Through his space company, 
SpaceX, he also has several collaboration agreements with NASA and the 
U.S. military.

However, despite his explicit commitment to US interests, Musk is also 
an enthusiastic negotiator with China and Russia. Tesla's main factories 
are located in China, which has led Musk to call for the lifting of US 
sanctions against the regime, as well as to heap praise on the Communist 
Party leadership. In the context of the Ukraine War, despite initially 
making Starlink services available to Ukrainians and NATO, he later 
advocated for mediation with Russia, signaling a rapprochement with 
Vladimir Putin.

Musk's interests have shifted to Latin America over the past decade, 
particularly regarding lithium reserves in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and 
Bolivia. In 2019, a military coup in Bolivia ousted leftist president 
Evo Morales, with the support of Trump and Bolsonaro. After being 
accused on Twitter (now X) of involvement, Elon Musk responded: "We'll 
coup whoever we want! Deal with it." In Brazil, in January 2022, the 
National Telecommunications Agency approved the use of SpaceX's Starlink 
satellites, which quickly began to be used in illegal mining.

Like most Big Tech owners, Musk long aligned himself with the Democratic 
Party while it was in power. In recent years, however, he has shifted 
more toward the far right, aligning himself with Donald Trump, Javier 
Milei, Giorgia Meloni, Viktor Orbán, and other conservative and 
neo-fascist figures. In the name of supposedly defending "freedom of 
expression," the billionaire began openly challenging social-liberal and 
social-democratic governments, including those in countries allied with 
US imperialism, such as Australia, Canada, and France. In 2024, Musk 
openly supported far-right parties opposed to the European Union, such 
as the AfD (in Germany) and Reform UK (in the United Kingdom). Despite 
this rhetoric, Elon Musk removed profiles on Facebook of opponents of 
right-wing authoritarian governments, such as Erdogan's in Turkey and 
Modi's in India. On November 17, 2023, he also announced that users who 
denounced Israeli colonialism in Palestine would be banned, a practice 
that reveals the extent to which social networks controlled by Big Tech 
operate algorithms in order to shape the political, cultural, and social 
narrative, on a global scale, according to the most reactionary 
ideological interests - an aggravation caused by neoliberalism, which is 
opening space for the resurgence of neo-fascism and neo-Nazism.

Beyond Silicon Valley
Despite the economic power of US companies, they are not the only ones 
with relevance and impact on the global stage. Aligned with US policies 
are Samsung, from South Korea, and TSMC (the world's largest chipmaker), 
from Taiwan.

China has become one of the biggest competitors for US interests. Its 
companies include Lenovo (smartphones), Huawei (telecommunications), 
Alibaba (digital commerce), Baidu (internet, artificial intelligence), 
Shein (e-commerce), and Xiaomi (electronics). One of the largest Chinese 
conglomerates is Tencent, owner of the WeChat app, a WhatsApp competitor 
with approximately 1.3 billion users. It also operates in the film, 
music, data processing, healthcare, and e-commerce industries, and has 
become a major shareholder in several foreign companies, such as Ubisoft 
(games) and Discord (communications).

In the social media arena, China relies on ByteDance and Kuaishou, 
owners of TikTok (1.6 billion users) and Kwai (1 billion), respectively. 
TikTok and Kwai have been accused of enabling the proliferation of 
far-right propaganda in several countries, including France and 
Argentina. While Donald Trump, throughout 2024, began defending TikTok's 
operation in the United States, in Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro's 
government approved its ban for allowing coup-supporting content.

With a smaller presence than Chinese companies, it's worth mentioning 
the case of Telegram, owned by Russian-born Frenchman Pavel Durov. With 
around 900 million users worldwide, the app has been accused of 
indiscriminately allowing dangerous content, such as child pornography, 
advocacy of neo-Nazism, arms trafficking, and jihadist movements. For 
many years, Durov was at odds with the Putin government, but throughout 
2024, Telegram was accused of favoring pro-Russian propaganda in the war 
in Ukraine.

Big Tech and Brazil
In digital commerce, marketplace companies have a large presence. In 
2024, the most visited companies were, respectively, Mercado Livre 
(Argentina/Uruguay), Amazon (USA), Shopee (Singapore), Magazine Luiza 
(Brazil), OLX (Netherlands), Shein (China), AliExpress (China), Ifood 
(Brazil), Casas Bahia (Brazil), and Samsung (South Korea).

Meta is the dominant social media platform, with a significant portion 
of the population using WhatsApp (150 million users), Instagram (135 
million, the third-largest country in terms of number of accounts on the 
platform), Facebook (110 million, the fourth-largest in terms of number 
of accounts), and Facebook Messenger (60 million). Alphabet/Google's 
YouTube has 145 million users. Next are TikTok (100 million), LinkedIn 
(75 million), Kwai (60 million), Pinterest (40 million), Twitter/X (22 
million), and Snapchat (7 million).

A report published by Repórter Brasil in 2022 exposed that Apple, 
Google, Microsoft, and Amazon used illegal gold from Brazilian 
Indigenous lands in their devices. According to the report, the four 
companies acquired illegal gold mined on Indigenous lands in the Amazon 
through the Italian company Chimet and Brazilian company Marsan. During 
Bolsonaro's administration, the region saw a surge in organized crime 
targeting mining, leading to deforestation, environmental crimes 
aggravated by mercury poisoning, and murders against several Indigenous 
ethnic groups-primarily the Kayapó and Yanomami.

In 2023, Big Tech companies took strong action to defeat Bill No. 2630, 
better known as the Fake News Bill, in Congress. The bill's intention 
was to regulate and hold social media accountable for the content users 
post on their platforms, resulting in an increase in misinformation, 
conspiracy theories, anti-science (especially anti-vaccine), xenophobic, 
misogynistic, racist, and, more broadly, radical far-right 
rhetoric-neo-fascist and neo-Nazi. In a virtual campaign orchestrated by 
large companies, posts criticizing the bill as an "attack on freedom of 
expression," "anti-democratic," etc., were promoted. A report by Agência 
Pública showed that Google paid Meta over R$670,000 in ads against the 
bill in less than two months, aiming to wage a narrative war and spread 
disinformation throughout society.

The role of digital capitalism in global manipulation
In the contemporary capitalist model, informational manipulation is an 
essential tool for preserving the dominance of a privileged minority 
over the majority of the population. In December 2024, Google allegedly 
misrepresented the dollar exchange rate on its platform, creating a 
scenario of economic speculation that benefited big capital investors. 
Similarly, it interfered politically in Brazil, concealing information 
about center-left candidates and favoring the far-right.

Actions like these demonstrate that Big Tech exerts direct economic and 
political influence, acting as instruments for deepening class 
inequalities and the power of global ruling classes.

The current stage of statist capitalism, based on policies of maximizing 
austerity and deregulation, is the stage that accentuates a greater 
concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few. To ensure its 
reproduction, it uses a sophisticated ideological apparatus, in which 
disinformation and algorithmic manipulation play a central role. This 
ideological apparatus will establish itself not only on social media but 
also through the development of programs and platforms that can be used 
in public school systems, through courses and/or teaching and learning 
materials.

Antisocialist rhetoric, which accuses critical voices of "threatening 
the social order," is a classic strategy of the ruling classes to weaken 
movements seeking social justice and wealth redistribution. However, the 
real chaos is caused by the dismantling of public policies and labor 
rights, promoted by these corporations to sustain the concentration of 
power and wealth.

The role of Big Tech in the advancement of neofascism
Capitalist crises, such as the one in 2008, have intensified the 
exploitation of the working masses and worsened their living conditions. 
Unable to offer concrete alternatives, capital uses the far right as a 
scapegoat to channel popular discontent. Neofascist movements, such as 
the Alternative for Germany (AfD), are examples of how capital promotes 
divisionism to weaken collective struggles.

In this context, Big Tech not only replicates the strategies of 
totalitarianism, such as the manipulation of truth and informational 
isolation in bubbles, but also creates mechanisms of social control 
through algorithmic engineering.

The appointment of figures like UFC figurehead Dana White to Meta's 
board is emblematic. White, with his authoritarian and deregulatory 
rhetoric, illustrates how these corporations reinforce discourses that 
delegitimize popular sovereignty and strengthen corporate elites.

Another example is Meta's decision to abolish fact-checking, replacing 
it with a "community rating" system. Despite presenting itself as a 
"freedom of expression" initiative, this change legitimizes the spread 
of misinformation, favoring far-right and ultra-reactionary discourse. 
Shortly after taking office for his second term, Donald Trump announced 
a $500 billion investment in an Artificial Intelligence (AI) 
infrastructure project, with Oracle, Softbank, and OpenAI as the main 
beneficiaries.

Towards a self-managed socialist alternative
The logic of ultraliberalism promotes alienation and impedes the 
development of class consciousness, which is necessary to transform 
social structures. To overcome this reality, workers must unite on a 
global scale, opposing the concentrated power of digital corporations.

The organized working class must act as a mediator for popular 
sovereignty, pushing for the regulation of Big Tech's power, taxing 
their operations, and redistributing the fruits of technologically 
generated wealth. Furthermore, the creation of public and cooperative 
platforms focused on the common good must be prioritized, placing 
technology at the service of the social majority.

The emancipation of the masses will only be possible through collective 
struggle against capitalist exploitation. Recovering the centrality of 
labor over capital and strengthening truly democratic mechanisms are 
fundamental steps to ensuring that the digital age is not just another 
stage in the oppression of the working classes, but an opportunity to 
build a caring and socialist society.

Libertarian Socialist Organization
August 2025

https://socialismolibertario.net/2025/08/25/big-techs-controle-informacional-e-capitalismo/
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