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Take Back Our Digital Infrastructure to Save Democracy
- WarOnPrivacy 1y agoLede: what the oligarchs [and fascists] don’t want you to understand: the same underlying technologies enabling this power concentration can be architected to resist it. The key isn’t begging for better billionaires or smarter regulations—it’s recognizing that decentralization isn’t a technical preference. Decentralization is a democratic necessity. Backstory: fascists are winning because they’ve built a direct pipeline from concentrated technological power to concentrated political power. This isn’t about technology being inherently dangerous—it’s about how distorted Wall Street incentives drove us toward digital infrastructure that mirrors authoritarian power structures. [fascists] discovered that when digital platforms become centralized and authoritarian, democratic institutions will follow. cont: The same authoritarian capture that took over centralized social media is already threatening AI systems as well. Just as we’ve watched [a fascist] morph Twitter’s algorithms into X’s non-stop amplification of his personal political preferences, we’re seeing AI systems designed to reflect the biases and political agendas of their corporate owners. But this pattern isn’t inevitable. We need to understand that AI doesn’t have to be another tool of oppression. Designed correctly, it can be a weapon of liberation.