Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman paid Twitter employees to spy on dissidents. He was also the guy that ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. One of the spied-on dissidents was a friend of Khashoggi.
1. MBS was not elected - a qualifier I included intentionally.
2. What Twitter would have needed was a counter-intelligence analyst (reactive), as opposed to Amazon's proactive intelligence post. Now that I've written it out, what twitter needed was better security - not COINTEL.
3. If companies start dabbling with intelligence and counter-intelligence against political actors directly (instead of offloading to state apparatus like the FBI), then we are reaching Deus Ex levels of Dystopia
Yes - Dystopian. You're likely familiar with the dystopian trope where unchecked corporate entities supersede nation-states. I got reminded of that here.
In my ideal democracy, I do expect pushback, but I'd like for it to come from actual voters. If you believe that not only are "corporations are people (my friend)", but should be able to go mano a mano with individual politicians (not lobbying), here's a quick thought experiment: how would you feel if that sentence were from a document by TikTok Inc?
first off, the "corporate entities" are not entirely unchecked. they have shareholders who vote and boards who oversee the company.
second, the "nation states" are on their last legs. the globalization of this tiny planet, the birth of the international citizen, and the truly global nature of the internet will make sure this happens.
the pushback against local democracy by global players is entirely justified considering it's inherently local nature.
on your last point, tiktok, as any other corporation is entitled to act as they see fit.
what we're actually missing is a global government, with global elections that can keep in check both the local governments and the global corporate players, creating a level playing field. this should be the ultimate wealth unlocker.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/former-twit...