International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 47

International Journal on Criminology GAFA: Utter Disregard for Crime and Individuals’ Security A 2017 New York Times article (New York Times International, October 20 2017) told how 324 hectares of a large district of Toronto is to be restructured. “Sidewalk labs” (Google’s urban redevelopment studio) has got in on the act. Underpinning its project is the boho-libertarian mantra: “friction = bad; diversity = good; fluidity = better still.” The area will be carbon-neutral, with cleaning, recycling, noise, and pollution all monitored and run by high-tech control systems. Taxis and deliveries? Robots. Around the modular buildings, sidewalks and streets will be warmed by cutting-edge heating systems that melt the snow. The shiny new future is now within reach. Except that at the same time, Toronto is experiencing a huge rise in crime. As this is a Google project, why not use Google to search “Toronto crime”? Dozens of articles appear for our edification. But like the rest of Silicon Valley, Google does not care about crime and the security of the citizen. Fixated on the calculable, and having failed to consult its own search engine, Google does not know—or does not deign to recognize—that around its “modular buildings” and along its “heated sidewalks” lie bodies riddled with bullets. One among no doubt many niggling examples of “friction.” Classic Vices Behind the Mirage of a “New World” Beneath the gospel of humanity’s marvelous digital future, there lies a less glowing reality: the tech titans of the day behave just like the good old capitalists of yesteryear: employees and sub-contractors alienated through social engineering; sexual favors extracted in return for jobs or money; and a blind eye turned to crooks and conmen like themselves. • Silicon Valley is a slave driver (New York Times, September 6 2017). There is a fascination with “toys for adults” ... paeans to wealth bordering on brainwashing ... the worship of work-addiction ... “burnout suicides” and euphoric episodes ... “Wanna buy your own plane?” Easy: work 18 hours a day, no holidays, no parties, no meals out, no friends, no family, no children, no time to be young, no sleep. A T-shirt popular in Silicon Valley reads: “9 to 5 is for the weak.” All in order to stand out at the courts of the tech titans. Do or die—what does it matter? Thousands of young dupes flood into the Valley every year. The propaganda makes sure of that. • Puritanism and “diversity” are for the masses. Outwardly, the Silicon Valley elite adhere to all the inclusive “values” of the day: LGBT (and other) rights, “diversity,” antiracism, feminism, veganism, and so on. In the Valley, anyone who challenges this smothering ideology is banished from the digital Eden. Outwardly, that is, because once again, behind the mirage of a new world, the worst excesses of the old persist. Nothing has changed since the rise of “sport f*cking” in the 1970s (CBS News, February 10, 2018; Vanity Fair, January 2 42