LDisinformation campaigns, the proliferation of deepfakes, the success of “reactionary” influencers on YouTube and Instagram, the increase in the number of climate-sceptic and anti-immigration tweets on X, starting with those of its owner and boss, Elon Musk. In this election year for half the planet, the question arises: is tech shifting to the right? Silicon Valley, the leading hotbed of new technologies, nevertheless continues to see itself as a progressive hotbed.
Tech workers successively supported candidates Obama, Clinton and Biden. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, have worked directly with the Democratic Party for nearly a decade to improve electoral targeting and the technological literacy of candidates.
Yet since February, the rumor has been growing that Musk would support the Republican candidate. Not financially. But the billionaire met with Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, in early March, and his relationship with Biden remains particularly tense. By sticking to libertarian principles of free expression, he has transformed Twitter, a progressive social network cherished by journalists, into X, which provides an echo chamber for supremacist and conspiracy theories.
The shift to the right of new technologies
Of course, the presence of the far right on the Internet is not new. Right-wing groups have constantly tested the political limits of the Internet through strategies of influence, propaganda and polarization. As sociologist Jen Schradie has shown in her book The Illusion of Digital Democracy (EPFL Press, 2022), right-wing political organizations have better exploited the network of networks than their left-wing counterparts.
Indeed, the latter have most often remained at a distance from the Web, maintaining a distrust of a communication system that would dilute the principles and cohesion of the militant organization “from below”. Beyond this underlying trend, it is the entire new technology industry that seems to be taking a turn to the right.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers AI: Competition Authority warns against domination of digital giants
Add to your selections
Schematically, the history of the Internet has three periods: that of the pioneers, the platforms and Big Tech. The stories of the origins gave pride of place to hippies, academics and hackers. In the course of the 2000s, a continuity could be read in the celebration of sharing and the contribution of Web 2.0. The Internet was no longer a utopia, but a democracy.
You have 55.12% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
