Techno-Fascism: Past and Present — An Interdisciplinary Symposium
Scholars from Stanford, American University, and Columbia examine how algorithmic systems, AI, and social media fuel authoritarian and far-right politics.
Why we picked this
The question of whether technology has an inherent political valence is one of the defining debates of the decade — this symposium brings serious historical and technical perspectives to bear on it.
This full-day symposium examines the convergence of far-right ideologies, authoritarian politics, and digital technologies. Rather than treating the relationship between technology and fascism as a novel phenomenon, the program situates current concerns within a longer historical arc of technology-mediated political control.
Confirmed speakers include Fred Turner (Stanford), whose work on Silicon Valley’s countercultural origins provides essential context; Adrienne Massanari (American University), who studies how platform design enables extremist communities; Kathleen Blee (University of Pittsburgh), one of the foremost scholars of organized white supremacist movements; and Nathan Schneider (University of Colorado Boulder), who researches cooperative alternatives to platform capitalism.
Free and open to the public at Columbia University.