There are wonderful high-frequency digital projects unfolding which tackle many of the world’s problems and increase inclusivity, equity, transparency and humanness. Such projects include open source initiatives, healthy digital communities, businesses which redistribute wealth and transform current power relations, technological devices which are built in increasingly ethical ways and allow us to take back control over our privacy and data, securing and re-establishing our rights. Yet the root of digital and internet technology – the very foundation on which all these beautiful projects are built – is in the wrong hands. Digital infrastructure needs to change fundamentally. Until that happens much of our energy will simply go into protecting ourselves from the negative effects of, and the corruption linked to digital technologies. Many projects which appear to improve privacy are still hooked into the same abusive roots which facilitate the harmful utilisation of data and people. Most decentralised cryptographic technology requires the use of, or is connected with ‘Big Tech’ operating systems, or pseudo-secure versions thereof which are neither transparent, nor independent.

Phones, laptops and gaming devices contain myriad materials, some highly toxic, which are mined across the planet, each with its own story and its own complex supply chain. Conflict minerals, child labour and human rights abuse are huge issues in the phone and laptop industry. Mineral trade has funded some of the world’s most devastating conflicts, the destruction of the environment and its societies for decades. The supply chains of worldwide brands are highly intransparent. Certain parts of the world provide raw materials while others hugely profit from turning these materials into finished products and using these products for business – these profits and opportunities never reach the origin countries of minerals and metals. The level of inequality is sad, and its transformation is in our hands. It is part of our responsibility.