Silicon Valley's powerful companies claim to embrace Enlightenment values, but instead are leading an antidemocratic, illiberal, and authoritarian technocracy
Silicon Valley has its own ascendant political ideology. It's past time we call it what it is.
The AtlanticAdrienne LaFrance
Context & Ripple Effects
This critique extends an established record of tension between Silicon Valley’s public idealism and its commercial power. Earlier coverage traced the ideology to a fusion of market values and humanitarian rhetoric, while former executives argued that platform business models had undercut the networked-utopia promise.market values and humanitarian rhetoricplatform business models’ break with utopian ideals
It also follows a shift in the sector’s position: coverage described startup-era disruption giving way as technology became central to the economy, and later revived warnings about techno-libertarianism.the fading startup-era challenge to incumbentsrenewed attention to techno-libertarianism The significance here is the attempt to name that evolution as a political project rather than merely a business culture.
First-order effects
The article sharpens a legitimacy challenge for powerful technology companies: appeals to Enlightenment values can be judged against the political influence and governing power the critique attributes to them.
It gives critics, employees, and policymakers a more explicit frame—technocracy rather than innovation—for contesting companies’ claims of social neutrality or democratic alignment.
Second-order effects
Public-facing governance, safety, and civic-partnership initiatives face greater pressure to demonstrate accountable constraints rather than rely on values-based branding.
Competitors and investors may find it harder to treat anti-regulatory or founder-centric politics as culturally separate from product and market power, echoing the earlier split between social-policy preferences and resistance to regulation and unions.support for redistribution alongside resistance to regulation and unions
Third-order effects
If this critique gains broader purchase, the industry’s central political dispute shifts from whether technology is beneficial to who has authority over systems that mediate economic and civic life.
The longer-running concentration of technological power could make democratic accountability—not entrepreneurial disruption—the defining test of the sector’s legitimacy; whether that produces durable institutional constraints remains uncertain.
The trend: Silicon Valley is increasingly being assessed as a political power center whose governing assumptions matter as much as its products and growth claims.
@AdrienneLaF The critique of your article below seems correct to me. The writing does not clearly understand the tech industry and thus is unable to effectively map out its contours. The solution section suffers from this lack of clarity on mechanism as well. https://x.com/...
The new technocrats are ostentatious in their use of language that appeals to Enlightenment values—reason, progress, freedom, optimism—but in fact they are leading an antidemocratic, illiberal movement. (2/3)
I finally wrote about something that I've been observing for quite some time. Silicon Valley clearly has an ascendant political ideology, and it's past time we call it what it really is: authoritarian technocracy. (1/3)
@JulianWaller I just like the visual of zuck with caesar's crown made of clicks. I will hail Zuck as augustus (may he have all the gpus) if llama3 is better than chatgpt4 and can run locally with only 32gb ram. Ave!
In recent years, this ideology has only grown stronger, more self-righteous, more delusional, and—in the face of rising criticism—more aggrieved. We would all do well to pay much closer attention to it: https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... (3/3)
Just wow. I swear every time there is a major concern floating around that hasn't been threaded together or tech press is reluctant to call out the SV emperors for their extremism, Adrienne nails it. Brilliant and as important read as ever. HIGHLY RECOMMEND (buy a sub if needed).
There is 💯 a clear authoritarian undercurrent in tech world and its broader environs. Unfortunately, this article on “The Rise of Technoauthoritarianism” does not help to explain or even identify it in the slightest. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
“To convince yourself that you should be the one making world-historic decisions on behalf of a global citizenry that did not elect you and may not share your values ... you have to dispense with numerous inconveniences—humility and nuance among them.” https://www.theatlantic.com…
The new kings of tech claim to embrace Enlightenment values—yet they are leading an antidemocratic, illiberal movement. We don't have to live in the world they're designing for us, @AdrienneLaF argues: https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
“To worship at the altar of mega-scale and to convince yourself that you should be the one making world-historic decisions on behalf of a global citizenry ... you have to dispense with numerous inconveniences—humility and nuance among them.” @AdrienneLaF https://www.theatlantic.c…
I'd say @AdrienneLaF is overboard in her tech indictments, but in the end, we agree: In my next book, The Web We Weave, I say it's time to demote the geeks. Start by covering net not as as technology but as a human enterprise. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
“Silicon Valley... is reengineering society more profoundly than any other power center in any other era since perhaps the days of the New Deal” Essential @AdrienneLaF on the rise of technoauthoritarianism https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Better late than never! @AdrienneLaF @TheAtlantic finally writes the essay every tech journalist should have written since 1/6/21. Tech industry has become a cult, aided by journalists and politicians, with values hostile to the public interest. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...