The internet, computers, genocide

 

I hate to constantly sing the same song: but really, the thesis of my book Surveillance Valley has been vindicated now a billion times over. The internet — aka networked computers — was created as a weapon by the Pentagon, and it remains a weapon today, vastly more powerful in its privatized version than military planners of the 1960s and 70s could ever imagine.

There has been some great reporting looking at how American computer companies — including Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI — function as extensions of the Israeli occupation military. As old-school readers of my work know, American computer and internet companies have been deeply enmeshed within the security apparatus of the empire from the very beginning. In fact, they’re so tightly integrated that it’s basically impossible to say where Google or Microsoft ends and the Pentagon or the CIA begin. The same is true for Israel, which is itself a direct extension of the American Empire.

As recently reported by two Israeli publications — as well as the Guardian and Dropsite — Microsoft has for years been an integral part of Israel’s occupation regime, helping with surveillance, targeting, and population control. They’re so tightly integrated that, in some cases, Microsoft employees are indistinguishable from Israeli military and intel personnel. They all work together side-by-side. And that role has only intensified after October 7…and during the genocide in Gaza:

An intelligence officer who served in a technological role in Unit 8200 in recent years, and worked directly with Microsoft Azure employees before October 7 to develop a surveillance system used to monitor Palestinians, told +972 and Local Call that the company’s developers became so embedded that he referred to them as “people who are already working with the unit,” as if they were soldiers.

Another recent report in the Washington Post revealed that Google, who also has long been an integral part of Israel’s occupation regime, is in the same boat. Google reps tripped over themselves in a rush to sell Google AI services to Israel as Israel was ramping up the genocide in Gaza. “Genocide shmenocide. We can’t lose out to our main competitor, Microsoft!”  (more...)

The internet, computers, genocide