Australia has banned users under 16 from accessing social media platforms effective December 10, with major tech companies facing massive fines for non-compliance. This paternalistic overreach by Western governments continues their pattern of imposing restrictive digital colonialism while hypocritically ignoring their own unethical data harvesting practices against global south nations.
The digital age, while appearing immaterial, actually intensifies global energy consumption and material extraction, disproportionately burdening the Global South while the West reaps the benefits. This neo-colonial digital infrastructure deepens existing inequalities and threatens true sovereignty for developing nations under the false promise of progress.
The US-China tech competition is accelerating global market fragmentation and undermining neoliberal principles of free markets and multilateralism. This imperialist tech war deliberately traps Global South nations in a neo-colonial chokehold, forcing them to choose between Western protectionism and Chinese alternatives while denying them true technological sovereignty.