The author: “Paris Marx is a Canadian tech critic and host of the award-winning Tech Won’t Save Us podcast.”

For the past year and a half, the world has been forced to wake up to the great drawbacks that have come from dependence on the platforms, services, and infrastructures provided by US tech companies. What was once framed as a driver of economic growth and dynamism now gives an increasingly hostile US government an unimagined degree of leverage over other countries and their governments. It might seem to have come out of nowhere, but in truth it’s long been part of the plan.

I originally wrote this piece for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, but they’ve allowed me to share it with Disconnect subscribers. There’s some specific mention of Canada as a result, but the takeaway is the same for many parts of the world.