In this powerful episode of The Disinfo Detox, host Nolan Higdon sits down with writer, educator, and activist Omar Zahzah, whose groundbreaking new book Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital Settler Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle exposes how U.S. tech companies shape, suppress, and weaponize information in service of a geopolitical project.
Together, we unpack Zahzah’s core argument: that Silicon Valley is not a neutral ecosystem but a political actor whose platforms reproduce, enforce, and normalize the Israeli settler-colonial narrative. Through algorithmic suppression, shadowbanning, content removal, and partnerships with state entities, Big Tech has helped police the boundaries of public discourse — especially when it comes to Palestine.
Zahzah traces how digital censorship is not incidental but structural, rooted in the political economy of U.S.-Israeli relations, the ideology of tech executives, and long-standing state efforts to control narratives around liberation movements. From Instagram suppression of Gaza content to Meta’s secret agreements with the Israeli government, Zahzah reveals a system in which the digital sphere becomes an extension of physical occupation.
We also explore what the corporate press still refuses to confront:
the systematic erasure of Palestinian perspectives
the coordinated surveillance and tracking of activists
the merging of private platform power with state-aligned agendas
the broader history of using technology as a tool of empire
Zahzah explains how these dynamics fit into a global pattern of “digital settler colonialism,” reshaping everything from online speech to political organizing — and why understanding this matrix is essential for any genuine movement toward liberation and justice.
If you value fearless analysis, critical media literacy, and conversations that reveal how power operates through algorithms, censorship, and technological systems, this is an episode you cannot afford to miss.
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