In Tehran, the streets are tense, the internet is down in many places. In a bid to try and stem a foreign-backed destabilisation operation, Iranian government has imposed a nationwide blackout, cutting citizens off from information, communication, and the outside world. Yet while state authorities scramble to maintain control, Silicon Valley quietly undermines sovereignty. Smuggled Starlink terminals from SpaceX beam uncensored internet into homes and streets, letting protesters livestream events, coordinate actions, and access unblocked platforms, a lifeline aligned with U.S. and Israel strategic objectives. This is not philanthropy. It is corporate-enabled geopolitical intervention.
A 2011 Stratfor email, disclosed by journalist Jeremy Loffredo on X, reveals that in 2011, Google, under Jared Cohen’s Google Ideas (Google’s “civic tech” incubator), explored how social media fuels modern “color revolutions” (protests/uprisings) by amplifying US-funded ‘citizen journalism’, which became Jigsaw in 2016, was operating at the Iran–Iraq border doing “what the CIA cannot do,” allegedly with tacit support from the White House and State Department. Jigsaw was and still is dedicated to applying technological solutions, which can be used in operations aimed at countering extremism, online censorship, and cyber-attacks to protect (or control) access to information.
In other words, where intelligence agencies are constrained by law, corporate actors move with impunity, using advanced technologies, social media, activist networks, and encrypted communications to shape the political fate of a sovereign nation. (Note that the post on Jeremy Loffredo’s X account (@loffredojeremy) that included the Stratfor email has since been taken down, though we captured it via screenshot.)
Long before today’s unrest, Cohen and Google Ideas were theorising and operationalising a model in which connectivity and digital tools could be weaponised to accelerate political upheaval under the guise of democracy. Every viral hashtag, encrypted message, and trending narrative can become part of a covertly orchestrated architecture of influence, tilting power, mobilising dissent, and reshaping the political landscape.
Even beyond Iran, major tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, have faced allegations that their infrastructure and AI services have been co-opted into Israeli military and surveillance operations in Gaza, enabling targeting and control of civilian populations. This underscores that Big Tech does not exist in a vacuum; its platforms are instruments of geopolitical strategy. (more...)
The Tech-Colony Complex: Silicon Valley, a Proxy State Orchestrating Regime Change in Iran
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