The EU, Final Stronghold Against Digital Autocracy
Shoshana Zuboff, Harvard professor emerita and world-renowned author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, has positioned Europe as the last meaningful defense against the rising tide of digital authoritarianism. In a series of recent interviews and essays, she has framed the European Union’s regulatory efforts as not merely policy, but a historic moral stand.
Zuboff argues that while U.S. institutions allowed Big Tech to expand in a legal vacuum, the EU has emerged as the only political entity willing to impose democratic constraints on platform power. “The democratic rule of law,” she said, “has just landed in our digital information space, not a moment too soon.” She warns that the unchecked power of Silicon Valley has already begun eroding public institutions, and Europe’s leadership is essential to reverse the trend.
Surveillance Capitalism, Turning Citizens Into Commodities
Zuboff coined the term “surveillance capitalism” to describe the dominant economic logic of the digital age, tech companies extracting behavioral data from users to predict, manipulate, and monetize human behavior. These companies, she argues, have moved beyond selling ads, they now sell the future, shaping it through algorithmic control and behavioral nudging.
This model, Zuboff contends, is not compatible with democratic governance. It reduces individuals to data sets and treats privacy as a resource to be mined. “It’s not technology that’s the problem,” she explains, “it’s the absence of democratic oversight in how that technology is developed, deployed, and governed.” Without laws that reflect the dignity and rights of the individual, she warns, the digital marketplace becomes a playground for manipulation.
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The Dangerous Fusion of Tech and State Power
Perhaps Zuboff’s most urgent warning concerns the growing fusion between corporate surveillance systems and political power. She points to a disturbing trend in which governments, authoritarian and democratic alike, are leveraging tech infrastructure to entrench their influence, track citizens, and suppress dissent.
She calls this convergence the “fusion scenario,” where state and corporate power coalesce to form a digital regime that is invisible, pervasive, and unaccountable. When governments turn to private tech monopolies for surveillance and behavioral analytics, she says, the line between civic governance and algorithmic governance begins to blur dangerously. This, Zuboff warns, is how democracy erodes, from the inside out, through the quiet normalization of control.
A Chilling Precedent, Harvard’s Battle Under Trump
Zuboff’s critique is rooted in her own academic setting. On May 22, 2025, the Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s certification under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), effectively barring it from enrolling international students. This decision came amid allegations that the university fostered an unsafe campus environment and had ties to foreign entities. As a result, nearly 6,800 current international students must either transfer or exit the U.S., losing their legal status.
This action follows earlier tensions, including a letter from the government demanding changes to Harvard’s policies on admissions, hiring, and diversity initiatives, and threatening a $2.2 billion federal funding freeze. Harvard has sued in response and opposed any revocation of its tax-exempt status.
Zuboff references this moment to highlight how political authority, when combined with data control, can be weaponized. “If even Harvard was forced to defend its right to educate global citizens, what happens when surveillance tools are placed directly in the hands of illiberal governments?” she asked. For her, it was a preview of what’s to come if democratic nations fail to build resilient digital laws and independent institutions.
Europe’s Digital Laws Must Not Be Toothless
While Zuboff praises Europe for passing the DSA and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), she is adamant that legislation is only the first step. “Laws without enforcement are like firewalls without fire,” she says. The DSA introduces requirements for large online platforms to assess and mitigate systemic risks, increase algorithmic transparency, and provide greater user control. But implementation and accountability will determine whether these frameworks protect society, or simply pacify critics.
She urges the European Commission and national regulators not to bow to pressure from powerful tech lobbies. Enforcement, she says, must be both aggressive and independent. Otherwise, platforms will continue to operate in bad faith, hiding behind compliance rhetoric while perpetuating harmful business models.
A Democratic Reset for the Digital Century
Zuboff sees this period as a historic turning point. Just as industrial democracies once tamed robber barons with labor laws and anti-trust actions, she believes digital societies must now do the same with tech monopolies. The digital realm has become the new civic square, but without clear rules, she warns, it becomes a space of coercion rather than dialogue.
This reset requires a cultural shift as well, an insistence that technology serve humanity, not the reverse. It’s not about halting innovation, Zuboff insists, but about shaping it with human values. “Democracy is not a technology, it’s a moral choice,” she says. “And in this century, that choice must be made at the interface of power and code.”
Democracy Must Now Defend Itself Online
As digital platforms become the new public squares, Shoshana Zuboff’s warnings resonate with growing urgency. The threats are real, but so are the tools to counter them. Europe’s digital laws, if enforced with determination, could reassert democratic values in a space long abandoned to market forces. In this defining battle of the digital era, Zuboff reminds us, silence is complicity, but resistance is still possible.
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