How are the tech oligarchs shaping our democracies? In conversation with former EU-parliament member Marietje Schaake and journalist Ece Temelkuran.

In his farewell speech, President Biden warned of a ‘tech-industrial complex’ and an ‘oligarchy of extreme wealth’ threatening democracy. His successor highlighted this very point by placing tech oligarchs like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Tim Cook in the front row during his inauguration speech.

Once celebrated as visionary enterprises driving progress and innovation, tech companies have become questionable forces in our democracies. From data privacy scandals to monopolistic practices and spreading misinformation on a wide scale, Big Tech has undermined public trust while molding the very fabric of our democracies.

Together with former EU-parliament member Marietje Schaake, author of The Tech Coup, and journalist Ece Temelkuran, author of How to Lose a Country, we investigate the position of tech companies in our democracies. How are the tech oligarchs shaping our democracies?

About the speakers:

Marietje Schaake (1978) is the director of international policy at the Cyber Policy Center at Stanford University. From 2009 to 2019, she was a member of the European Parliament for D66. In 2024, her book The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley was published.

Ece Temelkuran (1973) is a journalist and writer. In 2012, she was fired from the Turkish newspaper she was working for at the time, for writing critically about the Erdogan government. In 2019, she published How to Lose a Country: The Seven Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship.

Moderator: Rosalie Dielesen

The Techdenkers series is supported by Adyen. This edition is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.

Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.