Is the US Turning Into a Digital Dictatorship?

Sincere question, by the way.

The United States is taking steps towards becoming an AI-powered authoritarian regime, also known as a digital dictatorship. Many factors have contributed to this dark turn of events. For one thing, the US never managed to implement a comprehensive data privacy law at a federal level due to heavy lobbyism from the tech industry and a stalemate in Congress. The BigTech companies have arguably been treated with too soft a hand even though they have promoted “American Greatness” throughout the world if such a thing can be measured solely in domestic GNP growth.

BigTech has normalized far-reaching data collection. The public in the US and other countries have flat-out accepted it in exchange for easy access to convenient services, including social media, search, e-commerce, data storage, consumer hardware, and apps. Now, the people of the US are waking up to a new reality. BigTech and its business practices are not only used for advertisement. Both the companies and their practices are being instrumentalized for nefarious purposes under the guise of a tyrannical reality show star who is clueless about politics, economy, law, and public governance but has nonetheless been elected as President for a second term.

On Thursday of last week, Gerald Connolly, who is a Democrat from Virginia and ranking member on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the Inspector General of the Social Security Administrative (SSA) warning about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Based on whistleblower information and public reporting, Connolly is concerned that DOGE will disrupt SSA’s benefit payments to more than 70 million Americans. He requests an immediate investigation by the Inspector General.

“During its short existence, DOGE has established a track record of extreme negligence and an alarmingly cavalier attitude with respect to protecting Americans’ sensitive data. DOGE has exfiltrated sensitive data to artificial intelligence (AI) companies that have not received proper vetting for use by the federal government, flouted federal data access controls, and exposed systems in both the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Energy’s national security research labs to potential foreign attackers. Even DOGE’s official website lacked basic cybersecurity controls, leaving its database open for editing by any outside individual. With such a track record, I have significant concerns that DOGE could cause irreparable damage to Social Security, particularly if allowed to operate in the dark, shielded from necessary oversight and transparency.”

Conolly expresses three main concerns in the letter.

Firstly, he is concerned about a widespread IT failure which could leave many seniors without the income needed to pay rent, buy food, afford medication, etc. Repeated IT failures are already occurring at SSA, including crashes of the agency’s website which has left beneficiaries unable to access their accounts from time to time. The Trump administration has eliminated about 7,000 positions at SSA and DOGE has reportedly demanded a 50% job cut on technical staff. With a shortage of technical staff even small, manageable bugs could potentially spiral into major disruptions.

Secondly, the House Oversight Committee has learned that the Trump administration wants to rapidly replace critical IT systems at SSA. Many IT systems at federal agencies in the US rely on a programming language called Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) which stems from the 1950s. SSA estimated in 2017 that it would take about five years to modernize its IT systems and phase out the use of COBOL. Now, SSA reportedly plans to replace all its COBOL systems in a matter of weeks and months. Reuters estimated in 2017 that there are 220 billion lines of COBOL still in use, and that COBOL systems handled more than $3 trillion in daily commerce. Even moderate disruptions could have catastrophic results for public America.

Thirdly, the House Oversight Committee has received reports about efforts by DOGE to combine sensitive information about citizens held by SSA, the International Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), and other agencies into a single “master database”. This practice would violate common cybersecurity practices and the Privacy Act which in most cases require federal agencies to obtain written consent from an individual before disclosing their personal data to other agencies.

Reporting by Wired sheds more light on why DOGE wants to collect troves of sensitive data about US citizens and cross-reference datasets from different agencies. The purpose is to support Trump’s mass deportation of illegal immigrants – including a few legal ones who are viewed as collateral damage – and throwing them into inhumane, prison camps in El Salvador.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posing for a selfie video in front of inmates at a prison in El Salvador while showing off a $50k Rolex watch.

SSA’s government data systems contain the so-called “Numident records” (a contraction of the words “numerical” and “identification”) which includes a person’s social security number, full name, date of birth, citizenship, race, ethnicity, sex, and mother’s and father’s names. Combining this information with access to health data, tax records, and voting records on individuals, DOGE should be able to make a very accurate profile on most citizens of America. From a human rights and data ethics perspective, it really is hard to overstate just how precarious the situation is, as it opens the door to mass surveillance and behavioral control of an entire population. It reminds me of the concept “digital dictatorship” which is explained in a talk given by Yuval Noah Harari at Davos 2020.

From my first post on Substack:

“Harari states digital dictatorships in a simple, dark equation that he believes will be the defining equation of life in the 21st Century:

“B x C x D = AHH”

Which means:

“Biological knowledge (B) multiplied by computing power (C) multiplied by data (D) equals the ability to hack humans (AHH)”

According to Harari, governments and corporations with access to information about our personality types, political views, religious beliefs, sexual preferences, likes and dislikes, weaknesses and strengths, deepest fears and desires, are able to monitor everyone and predict and manipulate our behavior. Essentially, they have the “ability to hack humans”.

In Harari’s words, if we are not careful, we could create the worst totalitarian regime in history with the biological knowledge, computing power, and data about citizens that tyrants of the past lacked.”

Now, the US is taking steps to become a digital dictatorship with disregard for democratic principles, human rights, and the rule of law which were historically the uniting forces of the United States.