Sun Feb 09 13:33:43 UTC 2025: ## Big Tech Fuels Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Agenda: A Dangerous Alliance

**Washington D.C. –** Leaked internal documents reveal Meta’s decision to loosen hate speech restrictions on its platforms, a move seemingly aligned with Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. This shift, justified by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg as reflecting “mainstream discourse,” facilitates the normalization of hateful rhetoric against immigrants.

The relationship between Big Tech and the Trump administration is deeply intertwined, evidenced by the presence of tech CEOs as guests of honor at Trump’s inauguration following substantial campaign donations. This isn’t a new phenomenon; the US government has collaborated extensively with tech companies like Palantir, Amazon, and Salesforce for years, building a vast surveillance apparatus targeting immigrants and potentially anyone.

This surveillance infrastructure leverages data purchased from brokers, encompassing demographic, consumer, location, and health information. Agencies like ICE are actively pursuing “predictive analytics” to identify and target immigrants, having spent an estimated $7.8 billion on immigration-related technologies since 2020. Furthermore, government initiatives like the SmartLINK app, despite claims of humane monitoring, collect extensive personal data. Even DNA collection of immigrants, justified for crime solving despite lower crime rates among immigrant populations, raises serious privacy concerns.

Trump’s renewed presidency has brought a wave of executive orders aimed at ending birthright citizenship, expanding immigration raids, prosecuting uncooperative citizens, and accelerating deportations. These policies are bolstered by Meta’s altered hate speech policies, making legal challenges more difficult by creating a climate of normalized anti-immigrant sentiment.

This alliance between extremist politics and corporate technologies creates a highly volatile public sphere, mirroring past events in Myanmar and Palestine where social media fueled violence against vulnerable groups. The author argues that confronting this requires more than media literacy; it necessitates grassroots mobilization to challenge illegal deportations, combat disinformation, and strengthen local and international networks committed to immigrant rights. The author emphasizes the need to reclaim control over data collection and its usage, arguing that the current system reinforces a colonial power structure that prioritizes profit over human rights. The article concludes by calling for a collective effort to resist this dangerous alignment of power and technology.

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