AUGUST 8 — Yesterday, while a thunderstorm raged over Kuala Lumpur, another kind of storm was brewing inside the historic Majestic Hotel. In a small room filled with thinkers, activists, and policymakers, Yanis Varoufakis – economist, author, and former Greek finance minister – warned of a storm far more dangerous than thunder or rain. He called it techno-feudalism.
Varoufakis argues that capitalism as we know it is being replaced. The new system is not socialist, not democratic, and not even recognisably capitalist. It is something older, darker, and more hierarchical: a return to feudalism. Only this time, the castles are the cloud servers of Big Tech, the lords are corporate oligarchs, and the new serfs are us – the users, the gig workers, the data providers – trapped in a digital landscape we do not own, yet cannot escape.
In this emerging order, digital platforms like Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft have become the new overlords. They own the digital ‘soil’ – our data, our online spaces, our AI systems. Just five of these companies now hold a combined market US$12.5 trillion – exceeding the GDP of Japan, Germany, and the UK combined. Their CEOs command more power than many nation-states. And just like the lords of old, their power grows not through innovation or work, but through rent.
In this emerging order, digital platforms like Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft have become the new overlords. They own the digital ‘soil’ – our data, our online spaces, our AI systems. — Reuters pic
This is the crux of Varoufakis’s warning: we are shifting from an economy based on markets, wages, and private property to one defined by rent extraction, digital dependency, and corporate surveillance. In this world, value is no longer created through labour and exchange, but captured through ownership and control. Control of platforms. Control of algorithms. Control of desire and identity itself.
Governments, Varoufakis argues, have become vassals – dependent on these corporations for infrastructure, cloud storage, surveillance tools, and even national security. Markets are no longer competitive. Surveillance has replaced trust. People work harder and earn less, while tech giants grow richer through our clicks, our data, and our attention.
But we are not powerless.
Varoufakis offers a clear and compelling path forward. First, tax rent, not income. Economic rents, profits derived not from productive work but from ownership and privilege, must be taxed to reduce inequality and reclaim public value. That means taxing the unearned windfalls from digital platforms, intellectual property, monopolies, and asset speculation – not the hard-earned wages of ordinary people.
Second, treat digital platforms as public utilities. Just as we regulate electricity or water to serve the public good, the infrastructure of the digital world must be democratised and governed in the public interest.
Third, empower communities and local governments. Decentralised governance, built on transparency, participation, and fairness, is the antidote to techno-feudal rule.
Yes, the storm is coming. But storms can also cleanse. They can wake us from complacency, and spark new beginnings. As citizens, workers, and communities, we still have agency. We can demand that our governments act – not as vassals, but as guardians of the public good.
Techno-feudalism is not destiny. It is a choice. And we still have time to choose differently.
* Dr. Shahridan Faiez is a trustee of Citizens International (www.citizens-international.org), an action-based human rights non-governmental organisation based in George Town, Penang.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
