Digital Dependency: Economist Cecilia Rikap Warns That Big Tech Sells «Governance Technologies»

Original article: La nueva dependencia digital: la economista Cecilia Rikap advierte que las Big Tech venden “tecnologías para gobernar”

In her new book «Theory of Digital Dependency,» Argentine economist Cecilia Rikap warns that Big Tech companies are selling «governance technologies», significantly influencing the global economy and the daily lives of citizens.

In a discussion on the PodCastpitalismo program hosted by El Ciudadano director Javier Pineda, the Associate Professor of Economics and Head of Research at University College London’s (UCL) Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose noted that the book aims to update dependency theory, which emerged in the 1960s.

She recalled that this theory is based on the center-periphery concept, where «the center concentrates and appropriates value through unequal exchanges with the peripheries.»

Moreover, it addresses the extractivism of common goods and nature, alongside the concept of underdevelopment as an «effect of the center’s role over the periphery,» emphasizing the need to understand local complicities, political and economic responsibilities, and the limitations of the periphery itself, which reinforce this structure of subordination dependency.

«Therefore, if we start from these premises of dependency theory in its original formulation, we can see how rich it is for thinking in a contemporary way and continuing to develop it to analyze today’s global capitalism and its specific expressions within the digital periphery,» remarked the researcher from Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Conicet).

Rikap clarified that the book not only provides «a discussion on the geopolitical update of who is at the center and who at the periphery, perhaps provocatively suggesting that Europe feels like part of the periphery while China occupies one of the centers of global capitalism, but it also emphasizes that the global capitalism center includes not just the governments of the United States and China but also major corporations.«

The work does not limit itself to analyzing large digital technology producers; rather, it seeks to connect the emergence of these tech giants with a broader analysis of processes related to differentiating types of companies within capitalism and explain the origins of power among large firms across industries and sectors of the economy.

The associate researcher at the Costech laboratory at France’s University of Technology in Compiègne emphasized that the goal is to provide answers about why these corporations have the ability to control and coordinate global value chains, «why they can build platforms and control how people interact, even how the public opinion agenda is set.»

«Understanding this ability to govern the global economy that large corporations possess is essential,» she pointed out.

Big Tech Sells «Governance Technologies»

In her interview with PodCastpitalismo, Cecilia Rikap pointed out that within dependency theory, it is essential to differentiate the type of relationship that companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have with the U.S. government and the Pentagon from the type of relationship they can establish with Latin American governments.

She noted that these «Big Tech» companies provide a wide range of digital services, including infrastructure, data storage and processing capabilities, digital technology development, and software «as a service», along with cybersecurity. «Thus, what we find is that ultimately, what these companies sell are governance technologies that influence our daily lives, from Google Calendar to all the Google Suite tools, helping us organize our lives, to governing a business, coordinating a value chain, or managing a country,» asserted the economist and academic.

«When we talk about governing a country, what these companies sell to governments is closed-box technology that becomes central to their daily operations, covering everything from public administration to education, health,
and even national defense. It results in governments worldwide accepting these closed-box technologies by migrating to the cloud,» the researcher elucidated.

Lack of Real Access to Technology

Rikap warned that under this scheme, a «ton of additional digital services are offered (…), but never real access to the
technology,» which leads governments to operate with technology they do not control, have not developed, and do not understand how it works. This technology, is mixed with segments of technology that» various information and telecommunications departments of governments do develop internally, yet cannot operate without rented cloud technology—which often, results in what is referred to in English as a kill switch.»

The Argentine economist used an example to illustrate the situation, stating that if a company or the governments associated with it decide to shut down a server, they would then become inoperable.

However, she cautioned that this extends beyond what may appear as a dystopian threat, as cases have been documented where this situation has occurred.

She pointed out that it was documented that the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump told Microsoft to cut off technological services to an international court investigating crimes and genocide in Gaza perpetrated by Israel, «and Microsoft directly complied, which led to a total loss of access to email (electronic mail).»

Knowledge Extractivism

The economist, who specializes in innovation, corporate power, and digital capitalism, also emphasized that her book addresses «knowledge extractivism.»

She explained that large companies are not limited to «extracting or appropriating value and exploiting nature from the peripheries, but also engaging in knowledge extractivism.»

«Many people refer to data colonialism, which pertains to the appropriation of data by large corporations, but the example of data colonialism suggests that if previously Argentina exported leather and imported shoes, it now exports data and imports digital services,» she argued.

«What countries like Argentina, Chile, Brazil— all digital peripheries, especially those sometimes referred to as emerging or middle-income countries—do is also contribute public science and technology to these frameworks that later nourish the intangible assets of companies located at the center,» Rikap concluded.

Below you can access the complete interview with economist Cecilia Rikap on PodCastpitalismo: