“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”
— A.J. Liebling

Today, that freedom belongs not to journalists, but to billionaires.

In the past, owning a press meant printing influence. Today, owning a platform means owning perception. Elon Musk owns Twitter/X. Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Mark Zuckerberg owns your attention. These aren’t just companies—they are empires of belief, shaping how the world thinks, argues, votes, and feels.

We are not living in an information age. We are living in an influence age.

From Presses to Platforms: A Colonial Continuum

The colonizers of old extracted land, minerals, and labour. Their tools were flags, armies, and treaties.

In the early 20th century, mass media emerged alongside print and telegraph technology, becoming the new arm of imperial control. Radio followed—weaponized by the British Empire during World War I to broadcast propaganda across its colonies. Wire services like Reuters and AP turned a handful of editors into global gatekeepers. Press barons like Hearst and Beaverbrook didn’t just report on history—they shaped it.

Then came the microchip, the satellite, and the 24-hour news cycle. CNN made wars a live event. Murdoch’s News Corp turned opinion into currency. McLuhan’s “global village” was born—but instead of unity, we got hyper-connected conflict. Today, the press is not just owned. It is coded.

The New Robber Barons

In the 19th century, robber barons extracted physical resources: coal, steel, oil.
In the 21st century, tech barons extract data, behavior, and belief. They’ve built monopolies not just over markets, but over minds. They decide what trends, what gets shadowbanned, what remains visible—and what disappears.

These platforms pose as neutral infrastructure, but their design is anything but. They are engineered to maximize profit, not truth. Rage spreads faster than facts. Division gets more clicks than dialogue.

And the old colonial instincts haven’t gone away.

Look at Ukraine—not just a warzone, but a land rich in rare earths, lithium, and grain.
Look at Greenland—a frozen frontier eyed for minerals and strategic control under melting ice.

The colonial hunger for land and resources remains. Oil is passé. Rare metals are in.
But now, it’s paired with a deeper power: the ability to control the story about it.

Today’s empires don’t just seize territory.
They seize the narrative—and that shapes what the world believes is justified.
Truth? That’s just another commodity to be mined, packaged, and sold.

Disinformation as Policy

Disinformation isn’t a glitch in the system. It is a feature. Especially when the State colludes with platforms to shape perception.
We’ve seen this with:

• Anti-vaccine narratives left unchecked—or promoted—for political convenience.
• The demonization of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) dressed up as “protecting merit.”
• Minority communities algorithmically targeted through subtle or overt hate.

When States and platforms align, the line between information and indoctrination vanishes.

Take the myth of the “genocide of white South African farmers”—a lie long debunked, yet still fed through digital pipelines to inflame racial panic and evoke Western victimhood.

Or Trump’s fabricated claim of brokering peace between India and Pakistan—publicly denied by India, diplomatically dismissed by Pakistan, and privately ridiculed by anyone who knows the region.
It wasn’t peace he offered. It was blackmail disguised as trade.

And we know how that movie ends: the colonies buy, and the empire sells.
Always has. Just the product keeps changing—once spices and slaves, now data and delusion.

This isn’t about freedom of speech. It’s about the architecture of attention—
who builds it,
who owns it,
and who profits when it breaks.

Terms & Conditions on Mars

Colonialism never ended. It simply rebranded. Today’s tech giants are not just content with land, labor, and mindshare. They have their sights set on the skies.

• Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars under a private flag.
• Jeff Bezos imagines off-world supply chains with Amazon precision.
• Satellite networks are being launched not just for connection—but for domination of digital airspace.

What happens when the same corporations that mine your data also control your orbit?

If the cloud controls the clouds, who owns the future?

This isn’t science fiction. It’s a corporate space race, backed by capital, ideology, and unchecked power.
Tomorrow’s colonialism won’t wear khakis—it’ll wear hoodies and carry NDAs.

The Final Question

We used to ask: Who owns the land?
Then: Who owns the media?
Now, we must ask:

Who owns the truth?
And what are we paying—consciously or not—to believe it?