Event
SG - Big Tech Broligarchies & Dysinfluence
13/05/2025: Tonight’s session with Marc Owen Jones is postponed until further notice. Due to private circumstances, he cannot join us. We regret the inconvenience that this may cause all who had intended to join this activity. Our thanks for your understanding. Please join us next week when we explore An Internet Revolution with our guest Simone van der Burg. Keep an eye on our weekly activity update regarding eventual rescheduling in June.
What does their techno-political power and influence mean for the future?
About Big Tech Broligarchies & Dysinfluence
The digital technologies that are part of our lives and everyday interactions have created empires of wealth and influence for a Big-Tech clique. These guys– popularised as the ‘tech brothers’, and coined as the ‘tech bro’s’ - have more wealth than some nation states. The extent of their influence has led many to refer to them as ‘broligarchies’. How accurate is this label? What do we know about their power, its concentration and political influence for the good of the planet – or a select few? Whereas a ‘good old fashioned’ coup involved taking over the material and physical places, is a broligarchy flirt with political power nothing short of a lurch to control of digital infrastructure and all the data that goes with it? Dr. Marc Owen Jones talks to us about his years of research on the bromance between the ‘tech bro’s’ and authoritarianism. He will present us with an overview of their power at the core and peripheries of process driven societies. Is this a game changer or is there nothing new under the sun? Is what we are facing Digital Colonialism? Or is it - as Yanis Varoufakis coined – Techno-Feudalism? And what about Techno-Fascism? Unpack with our guest, various labels circulating to contextualise what is unfolding before us and why it matters.
About series Big-Tech Broligarchies & New World Order
At the global level we see a scramble to redefine world order. Amidst destruction and upheaval, new dynamics of power are emerging on a stage previously dominated only by states. Big-Tech billionaires, whose services, products, platforms and infrastructure permeate our lives, have taken up position in this mix; even at the heart of the disruption. What does their oligarchical, techno-political power mean for world order, the future of democracy and our own personal choices? This series traces the long shadow cast by the ‘tech-bro’s’ and unpacks what is going on and what is at stake for the future of democratic societies, pluralist political stability and personal freedoms.
About Marc Owen Jones
Marc Owen Jones is an Associate Professor of Media Analytics at Northwestern University in Qatar, where he specialises in exposing disinformation campaigns and investigating digital authoritarianism in the Middle East. A leading expert in social media manipulation, disinformation and political repression, his groundbreaking research has uncovered networks of fake journalists and state-sponsored bot/trolls campaigns targeting global politics.
In addition to his other academic publications, Jones has authored two books: "Political Repression in Bahrain" (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and "Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East" (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2022). His work has earned multiple accolades, including the British Council's UK Alumni Professional Achievement Award and one of Foreign Affairs' 2023 "Books of the Year." His PhD thesis also won the AGAPS award for best thesis in 2016.
His investigations have made headlines globally, from revealing disinformation surrounding Jamal Khashoggi's murder to successfully challenging the UK Foreign Office in a tribunal over historical torture cases in Bahrain. Jones work appears regularly in major media outlets, ranging from The New York Times and The Washington Post, to Al Jazeera English and the BBC. Jones grew up in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and has worked and studied in Sudan, Syria, Germany and the United Kingdom.