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
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