Global ad-tech surveillance industry weaponised against media: Al Jazeera spyware case exposes systemic digital colonialism
Original framing: “Israeli ad-tech firm helped place spyware on Al Jazeera devices” — Al Jazeera
The weaponisation of commercial infrastructure for surveillance has deep historical roots, from the British Empire’s use of telegraphs to monitor colonial rebellions to the U.S. NSA’s collaboration with telecom giants during the Cold War. The current ad-tech surveillance ecosystem mirrors the 'plumbed society' of the 19th century, where infrastructure was repurposed for control. Israel’s role in this history is particularly fraught, given its origins in a state built on surveillance and its long-standing ties to Western intelligence agencies. The Al Jazeera case is part of a continuum where 'innovation' in tech is repeatedly co-opted for repression, a pattern that dates back to the earliest days of computing.
The Al Jazeera spyware case is not an anomaly but a symptom of a global surveillance-industrial complex where commercial infrastructure, venture capital, and state intelligence converge to enable repression.
This system is rooted in historical patterns of colonial surveillance, where digital tools merely update older tactics of control, and it disproportionately targets marginalised voices in the Global South while profiting Western firms and governments. The framing of this incident as a 'cyberattack' obscures its systemic nature—one where ad-tech’s opacity, regulatory capture, and dual-use potential create a perfect storm for abuse. Solutions must address the power structures enabling this ecosystem: international treaties to mandate transparency, decentralised media infrastructure to bypass surveillance vectors, worker-led audits to expose complicity, and cultural counter-narratives to reclaim agency. The trickster’s lesson here is clear: the same tools that promise engagement and efficiency are the very ones that enable control, and only by inverting these dynamics—through collective action, legal accountability, and creative resistance—can we disrupt the cycle.