Politique Internationale — You speak of the 21st century as one of technological shock. What exactly does this mean? What new risks and threats are involved?
Asma Mhalla — This technological shock I’m talking about has three main characteristics. The first of these is an extraordinary capacity for micro-targeting: no matter how small, the target is reached thanks to the wave of innovation. We’ll come back to this later. The second characteristic is hyper-speed: everything is happening at an accelerated pace, in a system that has become dual. Dual in the sense that new technologies embrace both the civilian and military spheres, the public and private spheres, the individual and society as a whole, with constant interaction. As a result, we are seeing the emergence of complex players with multiple roots and areas of intervention. Let’s take the example of influencers: at the outset, they are part of a small circle, with a fairly playful side, before very quickly expanding their reach, with less avowed aims.
As for the third characteristic of the technological shock, it refers to those giants that have become unavoidable, the Big Tech companies. Their rise is all the more impressive for the fact that it continues unabated. These groups had an original vocation: technology and its development. Now they have changed dimension: they have become systemic players, i.e. capable of deploying themselves universally, via numerous business segments, and of influencing major political, social and cultural trends. They are still economic players, but they have established themselves above all as instruments of power and might. We know, for example, that many of the latest technologies are being used on the battlefields of Ukraine and Gaza, to name two of the main theatres of operation today.
P. I. — Let’s start with micro-targeting: what makes you say that the target is reached so easily?
A. M. — Today, technology makes it possible to collect an infinite amount of data on individuals. This compares with what used to be the case, when the approach did not go beyond the large masses, if at all; we used to think in terms of companies, organisations, population segments... Today, the individual is almost stripped naked: all his or her personal data is practically out in the open. This means that those who have access to this data can carry out highly detailed analyses of behaviour. They are becoming almost entomologists.
This micro-targeting would not be so worrying if it remained confined to limited uses such as commercial advertising. This is not the case: the mass of data is exploited for a multitude of purposes, from defining consumer profiles, to influencing political orientations, guiding socio-cultural choices, finding one’s bearings within a community... Micro-targeting widens the focus on a host of registers that could previously go unnoticed. Everything is screened. I’m talking about individuals here because this plunge into the intimate is spectacular, but almost all players, companies and governments in particular, can be explored in the same way.
P. I. — …