‘Big tech’s lapdog’: How can Ireland break free from the sector’s malign influence?
Naomi Klein: To end the impunity of big tech, the co-author of ‘End Times Fascism’ calls for collective action, political organising and data centre resistance.
At a packed Dublin Book Festival event, authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor warn about the impunity of the tech bro billionaires who are simultaneously preparing for – and accelerating – the climate apocalypse.
Despite the depressing title of their new book, End Times Fascism, their message is surprisingly hopeful. To end the impunity of big tech, they call for collective action, political organising and data centre resistance. Because data centres are critical infrastructure at the core of the industry’s socially destructive and ecologically devastating AI race, this is where people power can shift the trajectory.
To the enthusiastic audience, Klein and Taylor acknowledge a big contradiction in Ireland. While they expressed deep appreciation for Ireland’s courageous solidarity with Palestine and applaud how Ireland stands up for human rights and international law on the world stage, they also mention the consequential presence of big tech companies and their data centres in Ireland.
Although they do not elaborate on Ireland’s complicity in protecting the impunity of the big tech companies, many in the audience are surely connecting the dots. International concern for how the Irish State and economy have been captured by big tech has been growing, especially with Ireland hosting the presidency of the Council of the EU.
Embarrassingly, the headline of a recent Guardian opinion article referred to Ireland as “Big Tech’s lapdog”, and an open letter by 60 leading academics called on Ireland to recuse itself from tech-related EU negotiations because of corporate capture.
Corporate capture means private industry strategically uses its power to influence public institutions, laws and regulations so that corporate profits are prioritised over the public good. Corporate capture is dangerous, not just because it weakens policies and regulations intended to protect the environment and public health, but also because it undermines the ability of the public sector and civil society to hold organisations accountable. Without accountability, democratic backsliding occurs and authoritarian regimes take hold; powerful people have reason to believe the laws don’t apply to them.
In Ireland, the prevalence of corporate capture is linked to many societal problems where the profit-seeking interests of the private sector are prioritised over the public good. Ireland’s failure to comply with climate law, and its chronic underfunding of public education, public housing, public health and public transport result from its corporate-friendly approach. The public sector workers labour dispute exposes how corporate capture deprioritises the public sector.
As a scholar who studies corporate capture, my research contributes to efforts to rein in corporate impunity and hold industries accountable for the harm they are causing. From the tobacco industry to the fossil fuel industry, from agri-food to big tech, corporations strategically invest in university research to generate and disseminate knowledge that expands their profits.
While many governments around the world commit to evidence-based policymaking, industry-funded research often supports policy-based evidence-making – that is, corporations support research to strengthen their business interests and legitimise their policy positions.
The dangers of corporate capture in universities extends beyond the societal impact of industry-friendly research. A new study to which I contributed (led by US-based professor Noel Healy) shows how decades of corporate capture of universities in the US has made higher education institutions vulnerable to the current onslaught of attacks by the Trump administration. Our analysis highlights how corporate capture erodes democratic governance and the ability of public institutions to stand up against authoritarian control.
[ University education has become meaningless – and now it doesn’t even promise a jobOpens in new window ] Just as the fossil fuel industry made strategic investments in research to deny the severity of the climate crisis and promote fossil-fuel-friendly climate “solutions”, the tech industry strategically invests in universities to incentivise and legitimise the uncritical adoption of AI in research and teaching; a strategy that distracts attention from its societal and environmental harms.
But with independent research revealing the societal, economic and environmental costs of data centres, communities are now mobilising against data centres joining in the fight to end big tech’s impunity. As the global backlash expands, Klein and Taylor’s visit to Dublin reminds us that Ireland is an influential country with power on the global stage that is disproportionate to its small size.
Ireland may be economically dependent on big tech, but big tech is also economically dependent on Ireland. Just as Ireland stands strong in solidarity with Palestine calling out the genocide in Gaza, Ireland needs to now stand up to the tech companies, hold them accountable for the harms they are causing and end their impunity.
- Jennie C Stephens is professor of climate justice at Maynooth University and co-convener of the Climate Justice Universities Union.
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