this recent interview by my co-author Ulises Mejias gives an up-to-date view of our approach to #datacolonialism for the age of GenAI
New Books Q&A with Ulises A. Mejias, co-author of Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back (University of Chicago Press, 2024)
Interviewed by Jeba Humayra Prithwi
asaskat.com/2025/12/09/q...
@ulises-mejias.bsky.social @couldrynick.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
Interviewed by Jeba Humayra Prithwi
asaskat.com/2025/12/09/q...
@ulises-mejias.bsky.social @couldrynick.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
Q&A with Ulises A. Mejias, co-author of Data Grab
Interviewed by Jeba Humayra Prithwi on October 30, 2025. Ulises A. Mejias is a professor in the Communication Studies department at SUNY Oswego and a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Ex…
asaskat.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:12 PM
this recent interview by my co-author Ulises Mejias gives an up-to-date view of our approach to #datacolonialism for the age of GenAI
"Data Colonialism": Native Communities Fight AI Data Centers on Indigenous Land www.democracynow.org/2026/4/22/kr... #Indigenous #AI #DataColonialism #DataCenters #colonialism #environment
Data Colonialism: AI Data Centers on Indigenous Land
The artificial intelligence industry’s data center boom is the latest chapter in a long history of environmental racism and resource exploitation in vulnerable Native communities, says Oglala Lakota a...
www.democracynow.org
April 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM
"Data Colonialism": Native Communities Fight AI Data Centers on Indigenous Land www.democracynow.org/2026/4/22/kr... #Indigenous #AI #DataColonialism #DataCenters #colonialism #environment
Still, I’m sure Starmer, Streeting, Kyle, Reynolds and the rest will stand up bravely & boldly 😬 to Trump reasserting the US’s documented trade negotiation goal, ie unimpeded free flow of raw data into the US, esp health data, from which to build tech products to sell back to us #datacolonialism
February 22, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Still, I’m sure Starmer, Streeting, Kyle, Reynolds and the rest will stand up bravely & boldly 😬 to Trump reasserting the US’s documented trade negotiation goal, ie unimpeded free flow of raw data into the US, esp health data, from which to build tech products to sell back to us #datacolonialism
#SmartAdaptation or #DataColonialism? How #ClimateServices shape #ClimateAdaptation through depoliticization, financialization, and experimentation - building on research funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk. #PoliticalEcology #ClimateJustice #DigitalGeography #OpenAccess
January 28, 2026 at 9:15 PM
#SmartAdaptation or #DataColonialism? How #ClimateServices shape #ClimateAdaptation through depoliticization, financialization, and experimentation - building on research funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk. #PoliticalEcology #ClimateJustice #DigitalGeography #OpenAccess
Data is a new frontier of colonisation.
No anthropologist should engage with #LLM |s in their research and their teaching. Those who do, continue a dark chapter of our discipline - and they are not even writing it themselves, but have machines do it for them!
#datacolonialism #AI
No anthropologist should engage with #LLM |s in their research and their teaching. Those who do, continue a dark chapter of our discipline - and they are not even writing it themselves, but have machines do it for them!
#datacolonialism #AI
May 21, 2026 at 5:34 AM
Data is a new frontier of colonisation.
No anthropologist should engage with #LLM |s in their research and their teaching. Those who do, continue a dark chapter of our discipline - and they are not even writing it themselves, but have machines do it for them!
#datacolonialism #AI
No anthropologist should engage with #LLM |s in their research and their teaching. Those who do, continue a dark chapter of our discipline - and they are not even writing it themselves, but have machines do it for them!
#datacolonialism #AI
🚨 New in Big Data & Society 🚨
"Spectral imaginings and sympoietic creativity: AI hallucinations and the ethics of posthuman creativity” by Liang Ge.
🔓: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
#AIhallucination #datacolonialism #posthumanhermeneutics
"Spectral imaginings and sympoietic creativity: AI hallucinations and the ethics of posthuman creativity” by Liang Ge.
🔓: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
#AIhallucination #datacolonialism #posthumanhermeneutics
January 6, 2026 at 12:59 PM
🚨 New in Big Data & Society 🚨
"Spectral imaginings and sympoietic creativity: AI hallucinations and the ethics of posthuman creativity” by Liang Ge.
🔓: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
#AIhallucination #datacolonialism #posthumanhermeneutics
"Spectral imaginings and sympoietic creativity: AI hallucinations and the ethics of posthuman creativity” by Liang Ge.
🔓: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
#AIhallucination #datacolonialism #posthumanhermeneutics
The lecture series will feature talks by @gavinmueller.bsky.social, @jenmadelene.bsky.social, @menkman.bsky.social, David Gauthier, @ulises-mejias.bsky.social, Alina Gombert, Sara Morais dos Santos Bruss, and @danmcquillan.bsky.social
#Unstitching #Datafication #CRC1187 #Luddism #DataColonialism
#Unstitching #Datafication #CRC1187 #Luddism #DataColonialism
March 27, 2025 at 8:39 AM
The lecture series will feature talks by @gavinmueller.bsky.social, @jenmadelene.bsky.social, @menkman.bsky.social, David Gauthier, @ulises-mejias.bsky.social, Alina Gombert, Sara Morais dos Santos Bruss, and @danmcquillan.bsky.social
#Unstitching #Datafication #CRC1187 #Luddism #DataColonialism
#Unstitching #Datafication #CRC1187 #Luddism #DataColonialism
#SmartAdaptation or #DataColonialism? How #ClimateServices shape #ClimateAdaptation through depoliticization, financialization, and experimentation — building on Digital Climate Futures project @digitalclimate.bsky.social
funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk
#ClimateJustice #DigitalGeographies
funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk
#ClimateJustice #DigitalGeographies
January 29, 2026 at 7:40 AM
#SmartAdaptation or #DataColonialism? How #ClimateServices shape #ClimateAdaptation through depoliticization, financialization, and experimentation — building on Digital Climate Futures project @digitalclimate.bsky.social
funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk
#ClimateJustice #DigitalGeographies
funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk
#ClimateJustice #DigitalGeographies
Free tech in a crisis isn’t generosity—it’s a Trojan horse.
Now Palantir runs the NHS backend, police intel, and more.
Who governs the governor?
#DataColonialism #CodeIsPower
Now Palantir runs the NHS backend, police intel, and more.
Who governs the governor?
#DataColonialism #CodeIsPower
November 14, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Free tech in a crisis isn’t generosity—it’s a Trojan horse.
Now Palantir runs the NHS backend, police intel, and more.
Who governs the governor?
#DataColonialism #CodeIsPower
Now Palantir runs the NHS backend, police intel, and more.
Who governs the governor?
#DataColonialism #CodeIsPower
Tomorrow, 28.11.2023, 18:00 is our next #ComAI Lecture at @zemki.bsky.social with @couldrynick@indieweb.social on „AI as knowledge capture and colonial landgrab“. #AI #datacolonialism #datafication deep #mediatization www.uni-bremen.de/zemki/events...
November 27, 2023 at 2:45 PM
Tomorrow, 28.11.2023, 18:00 is our next #ComAI Lecture at @zemki.bsky.social with @couldrynick@indieweb.social on „AI as knowledge capture and colonial landgrab“. #AI #datacolonialism #datafication deep #mediatization www.uni-bremen.de/zemki/events...
"Canada would make a great 51st state. Then America could generate unlimited AI slop while externalizing environmental costs onto unceded Treaty lands."
#datacolonialism
#datacolonialism
This interview with ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt should get Canadian attention - especially from @evansolomon.bsky.social - he mentions Canada as the best place for AI data centres:
May 21, 2025 at 11:02 PM
"Canada would make a great 51st state. Then America could generate unlimited AI slop while externalizing environmental costs onto unceded Treaty lands."
#datacolonialism
#datacolonialism
Who owns our data and who profits from it? in the latest Careful Minds, Rayane El Masri speaks with Shilpa Singh Jaswant about data colonialism, digital sovereignty & the hidden labour behind our digital lives. What would a fairer digital future look like? #Podcast #DataColonialism #DataRights
August 31, 2026 at 4:02 AM
Who owns our data and who profits from it? in the latest Careful Minds, Rayane El Masri speaks with Shilpa Singh Jaswant about data colonialism, digital sovereignty & the hidden labour behind our digital lives. What would a fairer digital future look like? #Podcast #DataColonialism #DataRights
If a TikTok user from the US or Europe wants any of their data that the platform collects, they can request it from the company. The same is not true for African TikTok or YouTube users, who aren’t even given the option to apply. The Continent issue 184, November 30 2024 #datacolonialism
November 30, 2024 at 3:30 AM
If a TikTok user from the US or Europe wants any of their data that the platform collects, they can request it from the company. The same is not true for African TikTok or YouTube users, who aren’t even given the option to apply. The Continent issue 184, November 30 2024 #datacolonialism
https://f.mtr.cool/orzoxirbxa
#UntoldMag #DataColonialism #AIandWar #Gaza #BigTech #CloudInfrastructure #IndependentMedia #CriticalPublishing #AIEthics
#UntoldMag #DataColonialism #AIandWar #Gaza #BigTech #CloudInfrastructure #IndependentMedia #CriticalPublishing #AIEthics
December 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM
My article is published in Globalizations. It revisits the NIEO in the age of digital capitalism, arguing that Big Tech reproduces dependency through data extraction, infrastructure control, and algorithms.
#DigitalCapitalism #DataColonialism #DigitalNIEO
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#DigitalCapitalism #DataColonialism #DigitalNIEO
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
June 3, 2026 at 9:56 AM
My article is published in Globalizations. It revisits the NIEO in the age of digital capitalism, arguing that Big Tech reproduces dependency through data extraction, infrastructure control, and algorithms.
#DigitalCapitalism #DataColonialism #DigitalNIEO
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#DigitalCapitalism #DataColonialism #DigitalNIEO
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#Capitalism is dead. Welcome to #Technofeudalism. We break down #Enshittification and #DataColonialism—how #BigTech became feudal lords who extract rent from your attention. #TechTakedown.
🎧 LISTEN NOW 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/1y4u...
🎧 LISTEN NOW 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/1y4u...
Digital Feudalism: The Age of Extraction 🧠 Tech Takedown
open.spotify.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:13 PM
#Capitalism is dead. Welcome to #Technofeudalism. We break down #Enshittification and #DataColonialism—how #BigTech became feudal lords who extract rent from your attention. #TechTakedown.
🎧 LISTEN NOW 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/1y4u...
🎧 LISTEN NOW 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/1y4u...
“Spend the money on the Good Law Project. Give it to a food bank. Set fire to it ceremonially. Almost anything would be less degrading than paying Meta for the privilege of turning yourself into its unpaid intelligence-gathering hardware.”
👀 @hypervisible.blacksky.app @meredithmeredith.bsky.social
👀 @hypervisible.blacksky.app @meredithmeredith.bsky.social
#datacolonialism #privacy | Andrew M. | 23 comments
Anyone thinking of buying Meta’s spy glasses should stop and ask themselves what, precisely, they are volunteering to become.
A walking surveillance device for one of the most ethically bankrupt comp...
www.linkedin.com
July 10, 2026 at 5:05 PM
“Spend the money on the Good Law Project. Give it to a food bank. Set fire to it ceremonially. Almost anything would be less degrading than paying Meta for the privilege of turning yourself into its unpaid intelligence-gathering hardware.”
👀 @hypervisible.blacksky.app @meredithmeredith.bsky.social
👀 @hypervisible.blacksky.app @meredithmeredith.bsky.social
If you are in the UK and fancy a day or two in the country, I will be speaking on #datacolonialism at the ALSO festival at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, on Saturday July 12 morning. Details here: www.also-festival.com/entities/als...
ALSO | Talks
ALSO sprung from the loins of Salon London, one of the first organisations on the planet that put ideas from authors, academics, and experts together with audiences in stylish evening Salons and was d...
www.also-festival.com
June 25, 2025 at 5:30 PM
If you are in the UK and fancy a day or two in the country, I will be speaking on #datacolonialism at the ALSO festival at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, on Saturday July 12 morning. Details here: www.also-festival.com/entities/als...
The link between historical colonialism and data colonialism: the exploitation of cheap resources. #rp24 #DataColonialism
May 28, 2024 at 4:21 PM
The link between historical colonialism and data colonialism: the exploitation of cheap resources. #rp24 #DataColonialism
This article is Danish and behind a paywall, but @signeravn.bsky.social from Tænketanken for Digital Infrastruktur stands out as a pivotal figure in addressing pressing issues like #datasovereignty, #datacolonialism, and the future of #democracy in an era shaped by #AI and global interconnectedness.
"Vi mister demokratisk kontrol, når store dele af velfærdsstaten og vores hverdagsliv er afhængig af virksomheder, som vi har meget lidt indsigt i og kontrol med," siger Signe Ravn-Højgaard , direktør i Tænketanken Digital Infrastruktur. itwatch.dk/ITNyt/Branch...
November 28, 2024 at 3:23 PM
This article is Danish and behind a paywall, but @signeravn.bsky.social from Tænketanken for Digital Infrastruktur stands out as a pivotal figure in addressing pressing issues like #datasovereignty, #datacolonialism, and the future of #democracy in an era shaped by #AI and global interconnectedness.
Also so much of the UK coverage focuses on social media aspects, v little on the way US IT firms have embedded themselves as holders of highly valuable data on UK NHS & other public services, which they want complete freedom to monetise & flog products back to the world. Sigh… #datacolonialism
February 22, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Also so much of the UK coverage focuses on social media aspects, v little on the way US IT firms have embedded themselves as holders of highly valuable data on UK NHS & other public services, which they want complete freedom to monetise & flog products back to the world. Sigh… #datacolonialism
#Technocolonialism, #DigitalColonialism, #DataColonialism, #BodyTerritory, #Transhumanism, #Posthumanism, #HumanAugmentation, #Singularity, #DataHarvesting, #PhysicalReality, #BioEthics, #DigitalSovereignty, #AntiAI, #BookSky, #Bookstodon, #SomaticMaterialism
www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX2ZJJQ6
www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX2ZJJQ6
ANTI-HARARI: The Anatomy of a Technocolonialist Illusion and Somatic Materialism
ANTI-HARARI: The Anatomy of a Technocolonialist Illusion and Somatic Materialism - Kindle edition by Kemal, Ali. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading ANTI-HARARI: The Anatomy of a Technocolonialist Illusion and Somatic Materialism.
www.amazon.com
April 29, 2026 at 5:39 PM
BBC Mundo article (in Spanish) about Latam-GPT, a Latin American open GenAI project. I am interviewed in the piece, providing a critical response. IMO, projects like this don't do enough to challenge the extractivist and capitalist premises of GenAI. www.bbc.com/mundo/articl... #DataColonialism
Latam-GPT, el proyecto que busca ser el primer modelo de inteligencia artificial colaborativo de América Latina - BBC News Mundo
La iniciativa, que se lanzará a mediados de junio de 2025, busca convertirse en el primer modelo de inteligencia artificial (IA) colaborativo de América Latina y el Caribe, cuya naturaleza promete ser...
www.bbc.com
April 1, 2025 at 10:40 AM
BBC Mundo article (in Spanish) about Latam-GPT, a Latin American open GenAI project. I am interviewed in the piece, providing a critical response. IMO, projects like this don't do enough to challenge the extractivist and capitalist premises of GenAI. www.bbc.com/mundo/articl... #DataColonialism
Çevresel veri üretimi, sadece bilimsel değil; aynı zamanda sınıfsal, mekânsal ve siyasal bir meseledir.
Biomass, doğayı gözlemlerken, aynı zamanda bilgiye dayalı bir egemenlik biçimi de yaratıyor olabilir.
#ClimateJustice #DataColonialism #TeknoSosyo
Biomass, doğayı gözlemlerken, aynı zamanda bilgiye dayalı bir egemenlik biçimi de yaratıyor olabilir.
#ClimateJustice #DataColonialism #TeknoSosyo
April 13, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Çevresel veri üretimi, sadece bilimsel değil; aynı zamanda sınıfsal, mekânsal ve siyasal bir meseledir.
Biomass, doğayı gözlemlerken, aynı zamanda bilgiye dayalı bir egemenlik biçimi de yaratıyor olabilir.
#ClimateJustice #DataColonialism #TeknoSosyo
Biomass, doğayı gözlemlerken, aynı zamanda bilgiye dayalı bir egemenlik biçimi de yaratıyor olabilir.
#ClimateJustice #DataColonialism #TeknoSosyo