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This article has so many problems that I don't know where to start. > Tech companies exploiting resources in poorer countries while extracting data from their
by decimalenough 2y ago
This article has so many problems that I don't know where to start.
> Tech companies exploiting resources in poorer countries while extracting data from their populations to get rich is akin to “digital colonialism.” She compared data extraction to silver mining in Bolivia, which enriched colonial Spain but left nothing behind for Latin America. “They are extracting data in the same way. Data doesn’t even leave (behind) taxes,” she said.
1) Data collection and data mining are very different from data centers, but good luck explaining that to the layman.
2) Malaysia's economic problems are largely due to dysfunctional government including racial preferences baked into the constitution, coupled with the resource curse, meaning exports of oil/LNG fund all sorts of wasteful spending and crowd out other businesses. "Digital colonialism" is the least of their worries.
3) Last but not least, 60% of SE Asia's data centers are in Singapore, which is wealthier than the Western countries that, per the article, are apparently exploiting it.
- mc32 2y agoWhy do they have to go in that bent? Report the news, don’t inject prejudices into a story. All the things you mention are true but AP assumes few people know the ground truth and those that do they’d hope would just ignore it.
- w00kie 2y agoBecause "data centers are evil" is trending with the masses.
- scarab92 2y agoOutrage is demand driven, rather than supply driven. Even if you solve all the worlds problemns, journalists would just stretch the truth further to find new things to be outraged about to keep the readers "happy".
- re-thc 2y ago2) let’s not forget cases like 1MDB
- ludicity 2y agoI'm Malaysian, and in tech (though I've left the country), and this is all accurate. 2 in particular is huge. It's super weird seeing my country make headlines, but only in a way where I don't recognize the place they're talking about at all.
- LAC-Tech 2y agoWe need to organise a task force to rescue Singapore from digital colonialism. Why isn't the UN doing anything???