When we encounter violent imagery and descriptions of war atrocities around the world, even for just a second, the distance between here and there shrinks to the length of a single message, a single photograph. We see it, and sometimes try to move past it quickly, so that the image does not etch itself too deeply into our memory. In recent years, as wars have multiplied across the world, so too have these images of violence and unless we make a serious attempt to analyse these developments, we run the risk, sooner or later, of finding ourselves powerless not only to act but even to understand.
My name is Lori and I am a PhD student and assistant researcher at the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna. My doctoral research explores the labour involved in collecting, analysing and preserving sensitive digital material in contexts of war and conflict. While my current research raises questions about the construction of truth and the production of evidence, I believe that, at heart, I will always remain a materialist first and foremost.
This means that I seem to continually return to examining the economic relations and conditions that reproduce particular social realities. And there is little doubt that the recent push towards militarisation has been accompanied by economic incentives encouraging actors across different sectors to participate in and profit from the expansion of military activities and defence spending.
London Bound
As part of my Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM), I wanted to take my previous research a step further, delving more deeply into the technology sector and turning my attention to Big Tech companies and the complex, at times seemingly contradictory roles they play in the ongoing wave of rearmament. On the one hand, these companies are increasingly involved in the development of technologies and infrastructures for military purposes. On the other, they continue to operate commercial platforms and services that extract value from the data of millions of users worldwide. This raises a question: How should these corporations, as well as the systems they develop and operate, be held accountable?
And what better place to explore these questions than London, often celebrated as “Europe’s leading tech hub.” Yet where powerful interests are most deeply entrenched, critical voices and forms of resistance also emerge. For me, the work of researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, represented precisely this kind of critical engagement. And that was exactly where I was headed for my STSM.
The Militarisation of Big Tech
As I walk through the streets of London, I cannot help but notice the relentless pace at which the city moves. Big cities are always fast-paced, they say, but to me, London seems especially so. Everything seems to move in a hurry, and somewhere in this rush, my thoughts turn to the equally rapid military turn of Big Tech.
Already in 2025, Manuel G. Pascual wrote in a journalistic article: “Tech companies are going to war. This isn’t a metaphor.” Yet I sometimes wonder whether they were ever really absent from the military sphere. After all, the history of digital technologies is deeply entangled with that of the military-industrial complex. The latter played a crucial role in the development of the internet and the infrastructures upon which it still relies today. What is beyond doubt, however, is that amid the recent wave of global (re)armament, large technology corporations are assuming an even more central role in the war economy than ever before.
Foregrounding Collective Benefit and Responsibility
One of the central questions guiding my stay in London was how we can govern these corporations amid such a strong concentration of power and economic interests. During my STSM, I explored this question through conceptual frameworks grounded in grassroots understandings of justice – perspectives that foreground collective benefit, democratic control, responsibility, and ethical accountability. Time and again, reforms seem to have failed to curb the power of capital and its interests. The question, therefore, is whether it is possible to build a movement strong enough that reforms become a by-product of its struggle, rather than its ultimate goal, while striving for something far more transformative.
But I did not want to remain solely within the realm of theory, however important it may be. During my week in London, I therefore also met with people working on the ground to challenge these developments and address the ways in which Big Tech’s growing power is felt across different dimensions of everyday life. It is in these often less grandiose moments of resistance that I see the potential for the beginnings of broader social mobilisations.
The Question of Where to Begin (or Rather, Where to Continue)
Computer science pioneer Joseph Weizenbaum reminds us: “All of us must consider whether our daily work contributes to the insanity of further armament or to genuine possibilities for peace.” As researchers, we too have a role to play in these struggles. STSMs within Peace Action offer an opportunity to explore this role, forge new connections, and deepen our theoretical knowledge and understanding of ongoing developments. On the theoretical side, I gained new conceptual insights that will inform future publications, while in practical terms, I return home with a deeper understanding of the strategies and tactics employed by organisations and collectives working on the ground. Both dimensions, I believe, are essential to bringing about meaningful social change.
I would like to conclude with a quote from my host researcher, Professor Lina Dencik, who kindly welcomed me to London for this experience, for which I cannot thank her enough. Although she refers specifically to AI in this quote, I believe her reflections are equally relevant to the broader developments discussed in this blog post: “The current moment might appear to have consolidated powerful interests that make struggles more one-sided than ever, but it may also be in these moments of consolidation that cracks appear for the light to get in.” (2025, p. 3).
Sources
Dencik, L. (2025). What role can governance play in data justice? Reflections on the current AI moment. Dialogues on Digital Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/29768640251335677
Pascual, M. G. (2025, July 21). Big Tech enters the war business: How Silicon Valley is becoming militarized. El País. https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-07-21/big-tech-enters-the-war-business-how-silicon-valley-is-becoming-militarized.html
Weizenbaum, J. (1972). On the impact of the computer on society. Science, 176(4035), 609–614. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.176.4035.609
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Lori Šramel Čebular is a NextGen fellow and a PhD researcher at the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna. Her research interests include the political economy of data, digital forensics, feminist science and technology studies (STS), and the sociotechnical practices through which digital data is transformed into evidence.