The return of the techno-libertarians

DONALD Trump’s victory represents many world-changing things. One is the marriage of techno-determinism and libertarianism. In the world of this new administration, the line between Milton Friedman and tech billionaires such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Mark Zuckerberg blurs into a philosophy that aims to end all constraints on markets.

Trump’s band of techno-libertarian “volunteers” – as Musk rather disingenuously put it, given Tesla and SpaceX get more federal funding than the National Public Radio – believe that they should be left alone to get on with dismantling the apparatus of the state in service to efficiency-building and profit-making. The latter goal has already been achieved, at least for the Silicon Valley crowd – artificial intelligence, crypto and any business attached to Musk have soared in value since the election.

But the US is by no means the only place in which digital overlords exert undue influence. Last week, Musk announced that UK MPs “will be summoned to the United States of America to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens”. This followed a call by Labour MP Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons’ science and technology select committee (and a telecoms engineer), to have Musk give evidence about the spreading of misinformation prior to the UK riots last August.