Magpie Messenger Issue 2: What you need to know about Techno-Colonialism, the latest threat to our Sovereignty

Colonialism has taken on several forms over many generations – Settler-Colonialism, Petro-Colonialism, Green-Colonialism. At its core colonialism is based on the principle of dominating peoples through cultural and physical erasure to gain control of resources. All of its forms serve states and multinational corporations in their efforts to take more and more from Indigenous Peoples and their lands.

Techno-Colonialism, the newest form, is no different. Techno Colonialism is the theft of Indigenous lands and waters by companies and militaries to create data centers for artificial intelligence and crypto currency. It’s the extraction and exploitation of more resources for tech profit. 

Techno-Colonialism is a primary pillar of Techno Feudalism, a new term which speaks to the concentration of power in the hands of tech giants at the expense of individuals and our collective rights. These technology companies hold power much like the old feudal lords once did. But instead of controlling land, they control digital platforms, data, and online markets. Historically, colonialism was an expansion of feudalism: the concentration of power in the hands of a minority at the expense of and exploitation of the majority. In our new tech economy, whoever controls the internet - and the data flowing across it - controls the world. Now that need for more data storage is driving a new rush for these companies to procure more land to house their endless servers. 

While Techno-Feudalism plays out in digital spaces, Techno-Colonialism plays out in the physical and material realm, threatening Mother Earth and Indigenous Sovereignty. 

But the two systems rely on each other to thrive.

Big tech’s AI takeover is contingent on Techno Colonialism: the algorithms and the data centers they need can’t grow without stealing massive amounts of land, water, and resources.

Last year, The Washington Post estimated that using GPT-4 to write a 100-word email is the equivalent of one whole water bottle or powering 14 LED light bulbs for 1 hour. 

But data centers, which fuel this new technology, don’t just need electricity to run AI programs. They also suck up electricity for massive amounts of air conditioning and other services. By 2026, data centers alone are expected to use 1,050 terawatt-hours of electricity, somewhere between the entire countries of Japan and Russia. A proposed pair of data centers in Tucson, AZ, would use more water than four golf courses combined.

Data centers are more likely to be built in rural areas with access to water and low energy demands, thus making them more likely to impact Tribal and Indigenous Lands. Developers also entice low-income rural communities with offers of jobs so that they can seduce local governments to provide tax incentives and sweetheart deals to procure land, energy and water. 

This same dynamic is played out around the world, as global tech companies profit from the exploitation of former colonies. “The advantages of AI are frequently centered in rich countries, marginalizing the Global South,” wrote a team of academics in Ghana in 2024. They used the term “‘techno-neocolonialism” to describe “digital age's new forms of exploitation, where developed nations and multinational corporations often leverage technology to exert control over developing countries.”

The African continent, for example, has vast stores of rare earth minerals like cobalt that are critical for smartphones and electric vehicles. But the extraction of those minerals has left a devastating toll on Indigenous communities. Exploitative practices including child labour, unsafe working conditions, and environmental damage are common, while profits flow to multinational corporations based on the other side of the world.  

Things aren’t very different here on Turtle Island, where Techno-Colonialism threatens Indigenous lands and sovereignty. 

Northern Cheyenne, a rural Native community, is currently facing four distinct threats: a proposed nuclear site, planned uranium enrichment site, possible nuclear waste storage, all to power a proposed massive data center. 

Two corporations currently have plans to refurbish the coal refinery just a few miles outside of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation with a Small Modular Nuclear Reactor (SMR), which will use radioactive uranium to produce power. This is happening amid plans by an undisclosed mega-corporation to build a massive data center near the Reservation. The SMR will also require uranium mining and enrichment facilities, which has disproportionately impacted Indigenous communities worldwide.  

Nuclear energy, data centers, and AI all serve to hand over more land, water and sovereignty to corporations and the government. 

Through Techno-Colonialism, AI technology and data centers will continue to exploit resources for corporate profit, war, and surveillance while giving us nothing in return. Indigenous Peoples will bear the brunt of its costs as frontline communities. We must push back on this new era of colonialism and oppose data center development and its massive resource needs. Not one more drop of water or acre of land for a technology that no one needs or asked for.