TECHNOFASCISM, KI AUTHORITARIANISM AND COUNTERCULTURAL TECHNIQUES

Robert Misik in conversation with Paul Feigelfeld

TECHNOFASCISM, KI AUTHORITARIANISM AND COUNTERCULTURAL TECHNIQUES

Researcher Paul Feigelfeld, born in 1979, calls it techno-fascism - the tendency of Silicon Valley oligarchs towards authoritarianism. Spurred on by the new Republican US President Donald Trump, Californian corporations are reaching for power. According to Feigelfeld, platforms such as Google and Facebook are not just siphoning off users' data to sell it to the best-bidding entrepreneur or intelligence agency.

Protagonists of the cyber economy such as PayPal founder Peter Thiel would also use their influence to attack democratic institutions: „The platforms you use, the data you provide and the profits you make help to finance international fascism, reinforce hatred, drain our planet and cause immense environmental pollution,“ says Feigelfeld.

The cultural scientist calls for political resistance against the information monopoly of the major platforms. He does not stop at theoretical considerations, but also gives practical advice. He discusses what this looks like and how we can protect ourselves against the misuse of data with author and journalist Robert Misik. Artificial intelligence, which Feigelfeld sees as a psycho-imperialist technology, also takes centre stage. Instead of viewing AI as a purely human invention, the researcher is interested in the diverse forces that have shaped our technological systems.

Paul Feigelfeld (born 1979, Vienna, Austria) studied Cultural Studies and Computer Science at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he worked for Friedrich Kittler and Wolfgang Ernst until 2013. Until the end of 2016, he was scientific coordinator of the Digital Cultures Research Lab at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University Lüneburg. From 2021-2024, he held the professorship for Knowledge Cultures in the Digital Age at the Institute for Design Research at HBK Braunschweig and is a visiting professor at the Chair of Media Theories at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He currently holds the professorship for Digitality and Cultural Mediation (Media Studies) at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Feigelfeld lives and works in Vienna and Salzburg.

Robert Misik, Author and journalist