A vast and deep-seated cognitive war is being waged by major U.S. and Western information technology (IT) and communication technology (ICT) companies to change minds and distort events in order to portray the oppressors of the people as the good guys and the oppressed as the guilty ones. At the same time, they carry out cyberattacks against the critical infrastructure of other countries to create confusion.
The difference between IT and ICT is that the former focuses on the management and processing of data and digital information, while ICT includes the dimension of communication through electronic technologies. Both are essential for businesses.
Among the largest IT companies are: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Nvidia, Tesla, Samsung, Intel, and IBM.
The most important ICT companies are: Canva, Google Analytics, WordPress, SharePoint, Google Meet and Teams, Zoom, WeTransfer, and Google Drive.
Information technologies encompass hardware, software, data, and services that capture, process, and protect information to create value.
Recently, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders denounced the fact that the news media is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands, which hinders news pluralism and leads to a greater focus on propaganda serving those who dominate big capital.
Sanders noted that the Ellison family alone—allies of Trump—will soon control: TikTok, CBS, CNN, HBO, Discovery Channel, BET, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, DC Studios, Fandango, Miramax, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Pluto TV, Showtime, TBS, The CW, TNT, and Warner Bros. He emphasized, “This is oligarchy.”
The Democratic senator added: “To get an idea of the immense power this represents, TikTok alone has between 1.6 and 1.9 billion users globally. CNN, across its various platforms, is estimated to reach more than 800 million people worldwide.
“Aristotle,” Sanders continued, “defined oligarchy as the rule of a few based on wealth, who govern for their own interest and not for the common good. In our time, we must add their extraordinary hegemony over the media, which gives them the ability to educate us for their benefit, even when it seems we are merely being entertained.”
In direct line with these actions, Washington is pursuing a course toward digital enslavement across the globe, primarily in Europe and Latin America, which will lead to technological backwardness and, consequently, hinder IT development on those continents relative to the United States.
Likewise, U.S. intelligence agencies interact directly with national high-tech companies, so the expansion of their presence in foreign countries poses a serious threat to their security and allows intelligence agencies to increase their capacity to gather information on them and uncover vulnerabilities.
It has been demonstrated on several occasions that Western agencies, primarily from the United States and the United Kingdom, use modern information technology to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states, carry out subversive and espionage activities, while also using international hacker groups to pressure governments they do not favor.
Data from the United Nations indicates that the number of cyberattacks worldwide is growing by an average of 80% annually. Every day, state structures, industrial facilities, the energy sector, public services, transportation, universities, banks, and stores are under threat: practically any company or organization is potentially at risk.
In recent months, the BRICS member nations, at the initiative of Russia and China, have been working to create a mechanism that guarantees international transnational security and contributes to maintaining global stability and security.
Undeniably, there is an urgent need for a global governance initiative that opens new opportunities for the use of information and communication technologies, enabling progress for most nations of the Global South that are still barred from them due to their high cost and limited accessibility.