Why the ‘Techlash’ Is A Threat to Growth and Progress

It wasn’t all that long ago that digital technologies and Big Tech were largely seen as catalysts for positive change: the internet had become a global platform for collaborative innovation; social media was a liberating force and the smartphone was transforming the lives of people all over the world.

But the 2010s saw the emergence of what’s come to be called the techlash. The Oxford English Dictionary defines techlash as “a strong and widespread negative reaction to the growing power and influence of large technology companies, particularly those based in Silicon Valley.” 

A few months ago, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation published A Policymaker’s Guide to the “Techlash” - What It Is and Why It’s a Threat to Growth and Progress. “Does information technology (IT) solve problems and make our lives easier, allowing us to do more with less?,” asks the ITIF report. “Or does it introduce additional complexity to our lives, isolate us from each other, threaten privacy, destroy jobs, and generate an array of other harms?”

The ITIF report was published toward the end of 2019, a few months before the advent of Covid-19. Given that digital technologies have kept economies and societies going during the biggest shock the world has experienced since WWII, perhaps the techlash will now disappear. But, that’s not likely to be the case, because, as the report reminds us, fear and opposition to technology is nothing new.