Global alarm: Big Tech becomes the new 'colonizer'

The World Decolonization Forum, held in Istanbul, Turkey on May 11-12, put forward a striking thesis: colonialism in the digital age no longer manifests through territorial occupation, but through domination of technology, finance, and information.

Speaking at the forum, Ms. Esra Albayrak, Chair of the Board of the NUN Education and Culture Foundation, and daughter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned: “A generation may grow up thinking they have never experienced colonialism or exploitation. But spiritually, they may still be living under colonial influence.”

According to Ms. Albayrak, the war in Gaza is a turning point, exposing inequality in international principles as global institutions fail to prevent what many countries and human rights organizations call “genocide” against Palestinians. “The world is sounding the alarm, and we can no longer remain indifferent to it,” she said.

The era of 'feudal technocracy'

Ms. Albayrak argued that a handful of technology corporations are emerging as new invisible power centers, shaping how information is produced and consumed. She called the digital space a realm of “future colonialism,” warning that AI systems trained primarily on Western data risk reproducing global inequality.

“When AI is built on the platforms of big tech companies and trained on Western data, it risks carrying the hierarchies of the past into the digital world of the future,” she said.

Professor Walter D. Mignolo from Duke University (USA) argued that colonialism is not over. “Coloniality is still everywhere in the world,” he said, stressing that modern ideas of development and progress often pressure societies to conform to Western norms. Instead of merely resisting those systems, societies must find ways to “re-exist” by rebuilding their knowledge and cultural autonomy.

Colonizers in the age of finance

British political economist Ann Pettifor identified another modern form of domination: the financial system. The OECD’s March 2026 Global Debt Report shows 44 countries facing severe debt burdens, with many spending more on interest payments than on health or education.

Pettifor said: “This is not a state invading another state. This is the financial system invading the entire world, including my country and the US.” She pointed to “shadow” banking networks and giant asset managers like BlackRock (managing $13 trillion in assets) operating beyond the control of governments.

In Nigeria, for example, efforts to expand domestic refining capacity have repeatedly come under pressure from international financial institutions aimed at maintaining reliance on imported fuel.

'Mastery complex'

Ms. Albayrak compared current debates over technology and power to Rudyard Kipling’s 1899 poem “The White Man’s Burden,” which justified colonialism as a moral duty to “civilize” other societies.

“The traces of the ‘mastery complex’ persist, but in different forms – through technological, financial, and informational influence, rather than military occupation,” she said.

According to analysts, as warfare becomes increasingly dominated by AI and digital infrastructure, debates about decolonization are focusing more on who controls energy prices, lending systems, technology, and cross-border information flows. The solution, according to Ms. Albayrak, is a global order based on shared responsibility: “The burden should belong to all of humanity.”