Digital colonialism: Decolonial approaches for the algorithmic age

Abstract

As of the last decades of the 20th century, the rise of digital technologies has been accompanied by a certain techno-optimism about their possibilities and benefits. Nevertheless, since the mid-2010s, alternative discourses have begun to emerge, questioning the Western imaginary of digital technological progress. Among critical discourses, those linking these technologies with what has been called “digital colonialism” have gained traction. However, in the growing scholarship on the term, it is not used univocally but has instead become a polysemic term, often with contradictory nuances and meanings. With the aim of clarifying and systematizing the different uses made of it, this article carries out a systematic review of the academic literature on “digital colonialism”. Following this review, three positions associated with three distinct uses have been distinguished: (1) the metaphorical or ahistorical position, which establishes parallels between the extraction of natural and labour resources and the extraction of data; (2) the sequential or phased approach, referring to a new colonial order with new geographies and agents involved, placing large technology companies at the centre; and (3) the continuist or decolonial approach, which traces a continuation between historical colonial domination and the domination exercised by and through digital technologies. The paper concludes by proposing a normative framework for the use of the term, in the interest of greater clarity and precision in the debates, but also for greater historical and global justice: while the continuist approach makes appropriate and prolific use of the term, the metaphorical approach should replace it with “data extractivism” and the sequential approach with “digital coloniality”.