In recent days, Trump, Musk and JD Vance have joined on the right wing bandwagon to use the tragic death of Henry Nowak for their own message. If you have not seen Panorama’s ‘Trump and The Tech Titans’, now would be a good time to view this on iPlayer.
Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, which has controversially been rolled out to the NHS, met Vance at law school when he gave a talk, later employing someone who he saw as a useful individual. Vance initially worked in Thiel’s venture capital fund. Thiel backed his run for the Ohio senate with a $15 million donation, which helped Vance get elected despite no political experience.
Embedding one of your associates into the US government as vice president is an interesting business strategy.
A business which sees itself as a leading light in politics poses serious ethical questions.
Palantir went so far as to publish its own manifesto in April 2026 which explicitly calls for a link between technology, national power and their own definition of social responsibility. The claim is that AI has more importance than nuclear weapons as a deterrent.
How beneficial when AI is your main product!
The Silicon Valley right wing giants, including Thiel and Musk, saw donations to politics as an opportunity to shape public policy on their vision and interest. A particular pet project is cryptocurrency – digital money that can be used to make payments without banks, circumventing regulations. Trump in particular loved being involved with the so called ‘tech mafia’ as this was easy money for his campaigns.
Background context and essays
Thiel’s views were aired in essays from 2009 and 2014 in which he argues that freedom and democracy are incompatible, monopolism is good, and that competition is for losers (Rutten, 2026)
In ‘The Education of a Libertarian’ (2009), Thiel argued the expansion of the vote to women and welfare recipients damaged democracy. He considers political struggle for libertarian goals to have become futile. His conclusion is that the only escape from politics lies in technology: the internet, space travel, and ‘seasteading’ (inhabiting international waters beyond state authority). Technology offers what democracy cannot.
“Competition is for Losers” justifies ‘market dominance – whoever is irreplaceable need not concern themselves with competition, clients or oversight. Palantir is the living embodiment of this: a deliberately irreplaceable supplier that manoeuvres governments into a position of dependency.
Heaven help the NHS.
Fair competition underpins most procurement policies in the UK public sector. At least it should.
Presidential positions and ironies
Trump chose Vance to be Vice President due to his access to the tech giants.
Ironically, Vance once criticised Trump, claiming he was unfit to lead the US, describing the businessman as ‘America’s Hitler’.
Britain experiences foreign interference in our politics of the worst kind from a business men whose goal is deregulation (in the form of a Reform government) in order to boost profits.
Disruption and enragement for profit
If Vance’s words spark more riots in the UK, the need to invest in more powerful technology for policing might be put more actively on the purchasing agenda. Notably, Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, who the tech giants and Trump fervently dislike, thwarted Palantir’s implementation in the Met Police.
Khan follows the trend of a long line of politicians who have raised questions about Palantir, a firm which imposes strict confidentiality clauses on its clients. Experts have also raised the alarm about their reach in the NHS. Dutch MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld wrote an excellent article about this in 2020, ‘Palantir is not our friend‘
Critics have long warned of risks to data protection and fundamental rights, as well as dependencies on a US. provider.
Europol used Palantir’s ‘Gotham’ data analytics software for counter-terrorism and operational analysis from 2016 – 2022. The agency tested and deployed the platform to link massive volumes of data, but eventually decommissioned it to transition to in-house alternatives following strict oversight from EU privacy watchdogs.
Europe noticed the dangers of being too dependent on US tech in all walks of life.
Earlier this year, major Dutch banks Rabo Bank, ING and ABN Amro, warned of the operational and geopolitical risks associated with heavily relying on US Big Tech, especially for Cloud and AI citing concerns over data sovereignty and the potential for US infrastructure to be used as political leverage or cut off amid escalating trade tensions.
Palantir’s UK chief, Louis Mosley, claimed City Hall’s decision would “give hostile states and criminals an advantage”, yet Khan is right to press the pause button.
There are concerns about value for money; the original estimate was between £15mn and £25mn per year over two years, but following negotiations, the Met increased the figure to £25mn per year, £50mn total. Mayoral questioning is part of his duty of due diligence to the taxpayer.
Khan intends to speak to the government about whether a company’s ethics should be taken into account during procurement.
Leading expert Professor Reijer Passchier argues it is debatable how effective the systems are in delivering better security and as such may not be worth the trade off in loss of privacy; while the systems themselves can make citizens in general feel insecure. Doing business with Palantir is at odds with our values and laws.
The politics of profit from the surveillance economy
Safety is stronger when a society respects diversity – the female, the other. We are in danger of moving away from these balanced modern attitudes.
Stirring up hatred against immigrants and ethnic groups to direct more votes towards Reform UK, who would carry out huge amounts of deregulation in British legislation the moment they got the keys to number 10 Downing street, is to the tech titans’ advantage. The result of that would be profitable business deals for their friends, donors and associates from the US. Of course, Vance’s outbursts on X deconstruct the fiction factory of social media before our eyes – Henry Nowak’s murderer was born and bread in the UK, although of an ethnic background.
Division and hatred of migrants motivated our government to spent so much on anti-migrant technology which has reached the level of systems deployed to counteract terrorists or for full blown warfare.
Who benefits from anti-migrant anti-ethnic group rhetoric? Palantir. Thiel. Elon Musk.
Musk uses X to fan racial hatred, not only through his direct posts but by using specialised algorithms that push right wing content.
Cathy Newman’s story
Recently, Sky journalist, Cathy Newman, was inundated with mysoginistic messages and death threats via X and Instagram after her interview with Reform’s Zia Yusuf.
X:
- ‘”Suck my big white xxxxx you dumb ugly xxxx broad”
- “You are a racist xxxx who needs to be eliminated”
- “You need something between the eyes with a target sign”
- “Time to retire, she should be hunted down for her racist feeling towards her own king”
- “Make her an example ffs”
- “Cathy, you dumb xxxx, write your last will and testament, your DNA is pollution”
Instagram:
- “Rot in hell you slag, white lives matter”
- “Eat dirt you stupid whore
- “I hope you die a slow death suffering. You stupid … whore.”
These examples of chilling language are just a small sample of the torrent of abuse received.
Newman went on to comment, she at least has a platform which she can use to address this through Sky News to say this should not be happening.
Peter Thiel and crypto investor, Balaji Srinivasan, recently funded an AI startup that hires CIA, FBI and British intelligence to allow AI models to adjudicate on the truthfulness of journalists’ work.
Software that will judge, powered on AI, runs the risk of being ‘trained’ on politically biased data.
“The use of AI to rule on the veracity of a story is fraught with irony, as AI models themselves can be unreliable. LLMs (large language models) – which are trained on work taken from journalists without consent or compensation – have been found to amplify human bias, and have their own issues with transparency and hallucinations, delivering incorrect, logically inconsistent or completely fabricated outputs.“ (Harriet Williamson)
Civil rights activists described it as |”a high-tech protection racket for the rich and powerful”. As one commentator wrote:
“If they can label inconvenient reporting as “false” and friendly coverage as “verified,” journalism stops being a check on power and becomes something the powerful can simply switch off when it gets in the way. …
He reads 1984 Like a manual”
Musk bought Twitter, the world’s largest megaphone, renaming it to X, for $44 billion in October 2022. The funds for this were a mixture of his personal resources and $7.1 billion secured from equity investors, including Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
From the moment Musk took control, he relaxed Twitter’s protection policies.
Thierry Breton the EU commissioner for the internal market tweeted “In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules” suggesting regulators would take a tough stance against any relaxation of Twitter’s policies.
Trump was elected based on Musk’s preaching that the democrats supported mass immigration. Now he casts his nets at the UK with a large technical propaganda and disinformation weapon. AI further facilitates political interference on the tech platforms.
Disinformation on degradation
The recent documentary ‘Panorama: Scams, Lies, and AI’ outlined severe manipulation of political narratives.
A new phenomenon called Degradation Porn serves to push narratives that the UK is in serious decline under Starmer, exaggerating and falsifying truths provided by statistics. This ‘degradation’ is due to the presence of ethnic groups in our society.
A couple of notable examples were unearthed by BBC social media specialist, Marianna Spring, who depicted herself using AI tech, flying through the corridors of White City on a dragon.
Videos depicted riots in Croydon in an outdoor leisure park provoked by men belonging to ethnic groups, ie immigrants or non-whites. These clips went viral. Croydon is a diverse place; Spring questioned residents on how bad the situation really was in their neighbourhood. The residents were disgusted and the ‘filmed’ incident had never happened.
Similar degradation porn videos depict asylum seekers dancing having claimed benefits at a job centre. In reality, asylum seekers receive very limited resources – the bare minimum to provide toiletries for personal hygene.
Right wing groups, political organisations who have funds to dominate social media platforms, Russian bots are spreading degradation images. It’s hardly patriotic to celebrate the decline of Britain when that decline is in no way shape or form as bad as these films show.
Disinformation is here. It’s a war funded not necessarily by political adversaries but those with vested financial interests.
The profits of surveillance and commercial silence
Peter Thiel’s Palantir has benefitted hugely from climates of fear post 911 in the US.
Governments, including the UK, spend huge sums on technology to keep migrants out.
Palantir was also used for the Dutch Advanced passenger information system which analyses data for passenger arrivals from non-schengen countries, reputedly a proof of concept before switching to an alternative.
Rutten goes on to summarise the company’s publicity strategy:
“[Palantir] Chief Economic Officer Alex Karp called ‘wokeness’ the greatest danger to Palantir and America, and ‘peace activists’ the real ’war activists’; and said Palantir exists ‘to disrupt, and when necessary to frighten our enemies, and occasionally, to kill.”
Concerningly, Rutten found out during freedom of information requests submitted to the Dutch ministry of defence that Palantir included clauses in its contracts to require consultation when any information is release as part of a FOI.
To many, Sadiq Khan is an icon of wokeness (the left, human rights, balance, pro-environment and very pro Europe). Starmer too to a large extent is an embodiment of the law and regulation as a trained QC.
Extreme right wing groups would run the UK not in the interests of its people but as a business opportunity. The tech Titans will declare an information war on Starmer and anyone else who seeks to uphold citizens’ rights and environmental protections.
Dominating the online space and the minds of those who surf it on their phones or laptops is one of their most powerful tools. He who dominates the head space of users controls voting intentions.
Spreading hatred and fanning the flames of violence is clickbait for their platforms generating more revenues.
The papal message
Pope Leo recently spoke out about the dangers of AI’s algorithms; he is right to call out the the emerging threats of “new digital slaveries” and to urge those in power to curb the threats.
He discussed the need for “responsible care for the human family” and ethical frameworks, warning that if these do not exist:
“Those who control AI will impose their own moral vision, which will become the invisible infrastructure of these systems. A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.” (Pope Leo)
He noted the risks of AI for sparking conflict more quickly and rendering it more impersonal by “lowering the threshold for resorting to violence, transforming defense into threat prediction and thus reducing victims to data”.
His comments regarding AI warfare tactics hold true for the use of AI in other situations. Bear in mind Palantir’s predictive policing and surveillance tools products have been used for many years by the Israeli government in Gaza and the West Bank,
The pope prescribed:
“AI must be “disarmed”, wiped of military, economic, and cognitive competition. It should not be able to dominate humanity.”
He decried the way AI impacts on politics – such as the way it was used to manipulate images and videos, which he said exposed people to biased or misleading perspectives.
In the past, the Pope has likened today’s need for safeguards to protect people in the face of AI developments to those that were needed to ensure human dignity during the industrial revolution.
He even referred to the risks of “digital colonialism,” linking the abuses of the colonial era such as slavery to modern tech practices.
Social media
The young generation lives on their phone. Children walk to school reading their phones en-route and do not notice what is around them, often ignoring glorious views of cherry blossoms on the trees and tulip bulbs popping up in the gardens.
Those who dominate social media can more easily claim the minds of its users and their free time.
Brainwashing with fake news and desire for self-gratification through likes.
Sadly, we as a species become the slaves of the tech giants, a sobering thought and one which we must address. During Trump’s state visit to the UK, some of the tech barons and AI moguls attended the dinner in Windsor Castle, such is their influence.
The recent consultation on social media use by the under 16s is one way forward. However, many adults are now addicted to these platforms.
Viewing unsafe content has caused many murders. Look at what happened to Briana Ghey.
Where was JD Vance’s rage about her murder?
What of the innocent children who have taken their own lives due to social media pressures about physical image, or access to dangerous content on suicide techniques?
Government by the billionaires for the billionaires
Businessmen, tech giants, Musks, Thiels and Trumps control the US government and are seeking world domination. They are not elected to office in our system.
Billions can be invested into political campaigns in the US: Musk spent $270 million to get Trump elected.
For all its faults, at least when the EU played a role on our shores while we were members, the foreign influence came from elected MEPs, including our own British MEPs, who shaped European laws. We controlled too. Seb Dance created powerful legislation on food safety about processed meats.
The EU imposes controls and regulation on the technology industry to protect consumers, the sorts of laws Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg and their ilk detest in particular the large fines imposed on any tech giant for violations.
The EU developed the AI act, another source of irritation.
If diversity policies are dangerous, there’s an even bigger danger looming, that of a Reform government.
- Farage has long criticised the UK’s handgun ban instituted after the 1996 Dunblane massacre overpritective and advocates citizens’ rights to own handguns for sport.
- Reform voted against legal measures to criminalise up-skirting.
- Recent scandals during the council elections revealed many councillors had worryin backgrounds which escaped the party’s vetting processes.
If those in Trumpian circles, who claim to be Christians, were true believers they would recognise the huge irony in their words:
“Henry was far from the first to so needlessly lose his life, and I fear he won’t be the last,” he added. “Each time a life like his is lost, the proper response – the only response – is righteous anger.” (JD Vance on X)
What about the genuine refugees who are fleeing war, threat of genital mutilation, which carries risk of death when practised by those who are not medically trained, persecution, droughts?
Some of those people fleeing terror die on boats on the way to European borders or the UK. Many of those people are children, but they are not white.
Henry Nowak’s murder was tragic, a young life cut short in harrowing circumstances.
Sadly murderers come in all shapes, forms and sizes.
If Vance wants to clean up the police force, he should first look in his own back yard. Look what happened in Minnesota to a mother from the LGBT community whose son is now growing up without his mother. Innocent people who pose no threat to the police gunned down by Trumpian policies funded by the tech titans.
Both Vance and Trump have criticised Pope Leo. Vance is a Catholic convert and told the Pope to ‘be careful when he talks about theology after Leo criticised American and Israeli strikes on Iran. Trump has also attacked the Pope as “weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy”.
Vance should instead heed the Pope’s message, a voice which is the representative of celestial higher powers on earth:
“Humanity possesses far more effective and capable tools for promoting human life and resolving conflicts, such as dialogue, diplomacy and forgiveness”
Let’s not allow tech giants to put us down as a country and to encourage us to elect who they want to run the country.
Their influence on politics runs far too deep, their demands on our time through addictive platforms are too great, which ultimately makes us less human, not only in our day to day interactions with others, but in any restraint of rage through reason or humanitarian principles. Those who fall for any narratives become the tech titan’s pawns. Show kindness and compassion, especially for Hanry Nowak’s family.
Steve Bannon in an interview said “there’s a 20% chance humanity could be destroyed by this. The four horsemen of the apocalypse in Silicon Valley virtually have no guardrails, no controls whatsoever we’re going to a dystopian place unless we stop this.”
Diversity is dangerous
Diversity, the other, especially normal diversity in politics is dangerous, not for us, the people who supposedly live in a ‘democracy’, but for the tech barons and oligarchs. Where normal operations would be restored without their social media blitz kreig into every nook and cranny of the human psyche, they would lose their monopoly in the citizen mind space and thus, their powerful grip. This impacts business goals and ultimately their profits. When Starmer calls for Elon Musk to stay out of British politics, a powerful line of defence would be for the British government to take politics out of X. Alternative platforms exist such as BlueSky. Lastly, Starmer needs to take much stronger action against the tech barons, whose products, especially X, are a massive danger to our national security not just an insult to the tax payer. Firms like Palantir which impose confidentiality clauses on clients are up to mischief and we the tax payer deserve some transparency.
