From a media system dominated by plutocracy and state propaganda to a global democratic digital sphere.
A transatlantic initiative, led by a few EU nations, could transform media from a system dominated by plutocrats and state propaganda to a new democratic digital and governance infrastructure that can foster at once democratic sovereignty, cyber and informational defense capability, and constitute open democratic global platform for fair and effective dialogue - within and among all nations among- in line with the principles of the UN Charter.
The invasion of Ukraine has turned out to be more than a reckless unprovoked war by a great power aiming to right perceived and actual historical wrongs.
It has turned into the center stage and pitch battle of a worldwide clash of political models that has been brewing between equally-sized opposing camps, since the victors of the Cold War failed to foster a world order coherent to their declared principles and values.
A global war for the hearts and mind
It’s an all-out war for the hearts and the minds, by all means, that risks blowing into a nuclear confrontation.
It is fought within all nations and between an increasingly-coordinated camp of authoritarian regimes and a camp neo-liberal social democratic ones, aggregated around NATO and the EU not dissimilar from that which led to the 2nd World War.
The authoritarian camp has been gaining ground for many years to encompass half of the world economy and population.
Shared weaknesses
Some hope arises from the fact that, while have about equal military and technological strength, both camps share the same core actual and perceived political weaknesses, which are rooted in plutocracy - the concentration of economic power in a few dozens mega-billionaires, and the 0.1% of society, which expands inequalities and injustices - and propaganda - a degeneration of the digital media and communication system, which mines the trust in institutions, media outlets and platforms, and the cohesiveness of society. The US top 0.1% owns now nearly as much as the bottom 90%. The 3 richest persons in the US own more wealth than the bottom 50%.
EU unique potential
The EU, for its geographic position, its economic size, and its historical relative successes in taming those weaknesses within its borders - could play a lead role to mitigate those problems to promote both peace and the advancement of the aspirational values of the West, by building a shared open democratic digital communications infrastructure.
In a moment when the US has seemingly fallen into a loop of out-of-control excesses in neoliberalism, plutocracy, internal divisions, authoritarianism and unaccountable power of Big Tech - the EU could take the lead in transatlantic relations via temporary “passage of the baton” with the US, yet with a shared governance on equal basis, aimed to decisively and timely mitigate the contradictions and degenerations of the Western model.
Plutocracy and Propaganda in the West
EU success in such a venture requires, to start, an understanding of the synergies between plutocracy and propaganda in the West.
While plutocrats in authoritarian countries are much more temporary instruments in the hand of person or party in power, western plutocrats have much large strategic autonomy over political power.
Western plutocrats, which includes large US financial and tech corporations, rely on their direct and indirect power to deep manipulate and divide public opinion, in order to get them to approve or obstruct regulations that shift ever more economic and political power in their hands.
Western plutocrats, together with top western security agencies, rely on their informational superiority - i.e. their ability to maintain their licit and illicit secrets and acquire instead those of others, which they have acquired in synergy and nearly on par with nation states - to exert power over politicians, civil society, global elites, politicians, journalists, competitors and other perceived adversaries.
Prospects for proper regulations in the EU and the US
Reining in western plutocrats and propaganda may seem impossible, as the entire global media system, outside authoritarian countries, is solidly in the hands of a few ultra-billionaire plutocrats that control leading media groups and a few globally oligopolistic platforms - like Meta, Apple or News Corporation - and their backers in the US political elites, and the financial ones who have “bet the house” on their future valuations.
Regulating them is nearly impossible, when 27 nations have a right to veto in the EU, and 50 senators do in the US - not to mention their huge lobby power.
The 1st global democratic digital sphere
A few leading EU nations - at least in coordination with other allies, like Israel, US, and open to “third” countries - could come together to build and promote a new democratic digital communications base infrastructure, in competition with those private platforms.
In order to prevent political and lobby roadblocks, such a digital and governance infrastructure should brought forward completely or overwhelmingly by the executive branches, in compliance with current national and international regulations, and conceived to run on top of current Internet infrastructure.
It should aim to ensure much improved standards security, privacy, public safety and public democratic discourse, and seek to approximate a true “free market of ideas”.
It should seek hard to implement safeguards, checks and balances, uncompromising socio-technical transparency, democratic decentralisation and win-win solutions to reconcile conflicting democratic objectives, values and rights - such as personal privacy and lawful access - as well as counter the risk of excessive centralisation.
Similarly to the social democratic model of public broadcasters - companies, private innovators, NGO and social organization would be free to innovate on top of it, while abiding to mandatory interoperability for public applications to prevent undue concentrations of power due to network effects.
It should be conceived, from the very start, to ensure a governance that is solidly and as much as possible globally-representative, so as to constitute a global platform for fair and effective dialogue and cooperation at all levels of society, not only within and among nations in the Western camp, but also open and appealing to third nations, and then eventually to nations and civil society in the other camp.
What would success look like?
Though never perfect, and fraught with risks, it will very easily outperform current dominant western systems which have mostly been blindlessly outsourced to a few tycoons, corporations and overreaching intelligence agencies.
Success, even just in noticeably reversing the trend of expanding plutocracy and propaganda degeneration, may turn out to be, for the West, the most effective instrument to prevail and unite hearts and minds - from Ukraine to Moscow, from Kansas City to Nairobi.
Such a digital and governance infrastructure could and should, if well carefully conceived, at once: (A) improve the democratic efficiency of EU and western institutions in providing for citizens’ wellbeing, foster a constructive “coo-petition” among nations and camps; (B) help bring a critical mass of EU nations together in an integrated EU defence and foreign policy via the EU enhanced cooperation mechanism - while concurrently mitigating the risks of concentration of power and potential internal subversive far-right, neo-nazi and authoritarian degenerations, via increased democratic internal informational superiority; (C) and, most importantly, constitute a fair and effective basis for global dialogue, understanding and cooperation among geopolitical blocks across all levels of society, to sustain peace and tackle global challenges.
So are all plutocrats adversaries of such plan?
The initiative would surely face the stark opposition, and compromisation attempts, by the near totality authoritarian, kleptocratic and neo-liberal forces, as well as most plutocrats, and their proxies and surrogates.
Yet, while it is absolutely crucial that such initiative is lead via through resilient, transparent, participatory democratic constituent processes - through democratic nations, ethical experts and citizens assemblies - it could also attract the support of other civil society entities to support it, ensuring undue influence on the process.
Some of the richest plutocrats have called for “significantly” increasing taxes for the rich, and have devoted huge parts of their skills and resources to global public good initiatives, though rarely so far in democracy capacity building. Unlike corporations, plutocrats have the freedom act in ways that do not solely maximize their wealth or valuation.
It could even attract some courageous and conscientious plutocrats, and merely wealthy good-willed individuals, whose sense of responsibility towards humanity, their progeny or their legacy, may prevail over greed and cynicism, when faced with a sound plan to turn democracy into a solid instrument for promoting global public good.
How do we move forward?
At the Trustless Computing Association, are bringing forward one such plan via our Trustless Computing Certification Body and Seevik Net, through R&D initiatives and partnerships, a startup spin-in, and a global series of conferences whose 9th Edition of our Free and Safe in Cyberspace, will be held in Rome next September 9-11th. Join us! We need you!