Digitaler Kolonialismus
Digital Colonialism: How Tech Firms And Superpowers Are Carving Up The World Between Them
About the book
Few stories are told as often as that of the unstoppable rise of tech companies in the globally networked world. Yet one chapter remains largely untold: the price paid by the Global South. Ingo Dachwitz and Sven Hilbig shed light on this blind spot, revealing the global consequences of digital colonialism and exploring possible paths to a fairer digitalisation.
Jury evaluation
Digitalisation and artificial intelligence are hailed as beacons of hope in our time: virtually no problem is believed to be beyond their ability to solve. What is discussed less often, however, is the extent to which digital progress today comes at the expense of people and nature, and how closely it is tied to surveillance and control. Dachwitz and Hilbig do an impressive job of exposing this other side of digitalisation. They carefully explain how the big tech companies are expanding their power and dividing up the world through digital colonialism, consolidating old dependencies – especially in the Global South – while creating new ones. In doing so, they dismantle the myth of immaterial, neutral technology, helping to correct the narrative surrounding digitalisation.
 Darja Preuss_38818d672e.png)
Ingo Dachwitz is a communication scientist and works as a political tech journalist for the award-winning investigative platform netzpolitik.org. In recent years, his expertise on the ethics of digitalisation has been sought by, among others, the Federal Chancellery and the Protestant Church in Germany. In 2024, he received the Alternative Media Award and the Grimme Online Award for his research on the global data industry.
 Olga Lin-Bülau_e8bb191723.png)
Sven Hilbig is a legal scholar and expert on digitalisation and trade policy at the non-profit organisation Bread for the World. Together with partners from the Global South, he works to combat new forms of colonialism. For years, he has been one of the few in Germany involved in the World Trade Organisation’s negotiations on a new e-commerce agreement. He regularly publishes in the political monthly Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik.
News
ChristofJakob_1200x900_0c3ff2d839.png)
Founder
Main Supporter
Partner
Partner
