Carole Cadwalladr
In her powerful TED Talk, journalist Carole Cadwalladr delivers a chilling diagnosis of our times: Western democracies have been quietly and methodically undermined. What looks on the surface like voter choice, she argues, is increasingly being shaped by forces hidden from public scrutiny. In telling the story of the Brexit referendum, Cadwalladr uncovers not just a political scandal, but a systematic attack on the foundations of democracy—one driven by Big Tech, fuelled by big data, and thriving in the shadows where privacy has been stripped away.
Cadwalladr’s investigation into the Brexit Leave campaign—most notably its relationship with Cambridge Analytica—exposed how millions of Facebook profiles were harvested without consent. That data was used to craft psychological models, which in turn were deployed to micro-target voters with messages designed to manipulate their emotions and decisions. It wasn't debate or persuasion—it was precision-guided information warfare. And it worked.
This is where the role of Big Tech becomes central. Companies like Facebook (now Meta) provided the tools and infrastructure for these campaigns. Their platforms allowed hyper-targeting of users, often with zero transparency or accountability. And because these tech giants are profit-driven advertising machines, their algorithms prioritized engagement over truth, outrage over nuance. The more incendiary the message, the more clicks—and the more money. This business model did not merely enable disinformation; it thrived on it.
In her follow-up reporting, including her thread-turned-essay “The First Great Information War,” Cadwalladr reframes the issue in geopolitical terms. She describes a slow, rolling coup—a sustained campaign to weaken and divide Western democracies, with Russia acting as a key instigator but tech companies as unwitting collaborators. The battlefield isn’t a physical one—it’s our minds, our newsfeeds, our sense of reality itself.
Privacy, once seen as a personal right, is now collateral damage in this new kind of conflict. As we willingly surrender data for convenience—liking a post, installing an app, sharing our location—we create a digital profile of ourselves. This profile can be sold, stolen, or weaponized. And because there are almost no effective regulations in place, the people and entities using this data are largely untraceable and unaccountable.
Cadwalladr’s work, then, is not just an exposé—it’s a warning. The systems we rely on for truth and democratic participation are broken. Big Tech companies hold more influence than many governments, yet they operate with far less scrutiny. Our data has become a commodity, traded in invisible markets. And our privacy is the price we pay for ‘free’ services that in reality cost us our autonomy.
If we are to make sense of what’s happening—and resist it—we must do more than reform electoral laws or increase ad transparency. We need to fundamentally rethink the relationship between data, power, and democracy. This isn’t just a glitch in the system. As Cadwalladr insists: It’s a coup.