Posted yesterday at 5:00 p.m.
“The history of the Western world will remember that this is the most important conquest of the 21stand century. What is it about ? Of the conquest of the digital universe and our territories by the American superpowers. In fact, it is the most overwhelming attack on national sovereignty that States have known in this new millennium. In the last century, this kind of conquest was associated with wars or the inclinations of American imperialism. Today, history is repeating itself. Except that there is no armed intervention, no shooting, no CIA involvement, or collusion with complicit leaders or corrupt regimes. The GAFAMs (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft), and a few other platforms such as Airbnb, Uber and Netflix, have become the new great lords of this digital empire which abolishes borders. And they are mostly Americans, which is no small detail, especially for us, a minority of irreducible French speakers in North America. It is by virtue of this power that the GAFAMs and the other digital giants have themselves defined the rules of the game, behaving in the same way as a conqueror with regard to a conquered population and territory. . They are digital barbarians who must be resisted.
Their omnipotence challenges the principle and the very existence of national states. Because it is indeed the authority and the legitimacy of the States which are called into question by the digital giants on their respective territories.
Quebec and Canada are no exception to the rule. The digital superpowers defy our laws, refuse to recognize our borders and respect our rules of the game. Among them, social networks like Facebook and Twitter impose their lack of communication ethics, promote the spread of false statements, encourage extremism and disregard copyright. The accusation is serious: these giants pose a threat to democracy, to the role and definition of the state as we have known them so far.
The conquerors are used to imposing their culture and their language. We will not escape it, it is the current heavy trend of their strategies. The French-speaking population in Canada and Quebec must imperatively take note of this.
This is why it has become essential for our national states to regulate the unavoidable cohabitation with the digital superpowers. This means regaining control of our territory, defining universal regulations for digital companies – both our own and foreign ones –, establishing tax fairness for them and finally guaranteeing the protection of our cultures and of our endangered language.
Of course, the territories of Canada and Quebec are “occupied” in the same way by the new great American digital lords as those of other Western countries. We don’t stand apart. But being a neighbor of the United States in North America gives free rein to more arrogance on their part. As with the world of cinema, we are part of their domestic market. However, as far as Quebec is concerned, the entire French-speaking cultural space is buried under the Anglo-Saxon content offered by the digital giants. We must be aware that living in French in the digital age involves more serious obstacles than ever. This can be seen in the disaffection of people under 35 with regard to French culture and language in Quebec.
These superpowers, mainly American, have indeed become the true owners of the digital space. We are no longer just simple tenants/users who borrow their distribution and communication networks. We have transformed ourselves, by force of circumstances, into a captive and assiduous clientele of their devices, their content, their applications. Billions of people are connected to social networks (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, TikTok, etc.) or use search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.). It’s a powerful addiction we’ve developed since the internet became as essential to our lives as water and electricity. This is why we can speak of “GAFAM-dependency”. However, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, GAFAM-dependency has increased more than ever. Look no further, there is no vaccine to counter this addiction. »
The Digital Barbarians – Resisting the GAFAM Invasion
Alain Saulnier
Eco-society
200 pages
Who is Alain Saulnier?
A journalist by trade, Alain Saulnier headed the news department at Radio-Canada (2006-2012) and taught journalism at the University of Montreal (2012-2022). He is the author ofHere was Radio-Canada (Boreal, 2014).