There is a key question that haunts the topic raised, as Yuval Noah Harari already did in his book ‘Nexus’: Should we first better understand what information is, how it helps build human networks, and how it relates to truth and power?

The answer to this question requires different approaches and perspectives, which Hariri largely addresses in his book, but since this is an article, we’ll try to get to the bottom of it.

The concrete fact is that information doesn’t accurately represent reality, but it can create networks of power. The classic example is the Bible; despite its numerous errors, it became a text that created an entire institutional framework of power with enormous implications of all kinds for society. Why does information create networks of power?

Because it has the power to connect, and if measures are not taken to tip the balance in favor of truth, what we have is the capacity of a certain information network to create lies, errors, and fantasies, with a specific objective, which is not precisely to promote education or wisdom, but rather a certain order. That information network called the Bible ultimately connected approximately 1.4 billion people. And quite a few million believe in the immaculate conception of Mary. Obviously, the millions of Christians do not connect with the person, that is, with Mary, but rather with the story. And here begins the “original sin” of all problems.

 Ultimately, the official narrative of what is said about Jesus ends up being more influential than the historical figure himself, and the revolutionary message that Liberation Theologians have sought to rescue and promote is neutralized.

If this “technological network called the Bible” has caused everything it has in history—among these, for example, the “Holy Inquisition”; the witch hunt; and providing ideological support for the conquest and subsequent colonialism in Our America—let’s look at what the lack of technological sovereignty is causing today.

And if there are now entities that control algorithms and choose what people should see and hear, we have a big problem. These algorithms connect with whomever they want and report what they want to report; we’re talking about a power that not even the Bible once possessed. Just one example of what algorithms can cause: Facebook executives and engineers are responsible for coding its algorithms, and they were given enormous power with little capacity for moderation. This situation played a role in the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in 2016-17. If you program an algorithm to gain more “likes” for everything that generates hate, the result is predictable.

Imagine what could already be happening to a country’s democratic institutions if you surrender sovereignty over the information network.

Large Western technology corporations have managed to monopolize key digital dimensions, turning most countries in the Global South into their technological hostages. This critical dependence (absolute loss of control) and techno-geopolitical submission is not positive for states because of the interference and threat it poses to their institutions and society in general.

It can be said that today, those who lack sovereignty over their information networks (clouds, social networks, operating systems, search engines) are handing over all the data of the state and its citizens to the storage centers of Big Tech and the intelligence services of countries in the neoliberal globalist world (remember the Snowden complaint).

Three angles need to be highlighted again:

• Dangerous undermining of national security, data on foreign servers.
  
• Economic asymmetry. Not only are we now robbed of the capital generated in our countries through illegitimate debt, but we are also surrendering value by handing over data without control.
  
• Systemic vulnerability, as shown by cases like the AWS outage that paralyzed Latin American media. According to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) (2024), AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Microsoft control 80% of the cloud.

Faced with this scenario, states in the Global South must develop their own information technology infrastructure. This represents a fundamental strategic challenge that requires South-South cooperation and strategic public investment (including secure operating systems, fiber optic backbone networks, etc.). A robust legal and regulatory framework is needed. Ultimately, the implementation of a sovereign information network architecture is required.

It is impossible to imagine a healthy future without breaking this threat and technological dependence; sustainable economic development is unlikely without sovereignty in the area we have analyzed.