Is Libra a step towards the first CorpoNation?

Future-worlds dominated and directed by super-corporations, benign or otherwise, have been a trope of science fiction for decades. The fear that democratic government will fall to techno-corporatism has been a driving factor in many dystopian visions — but are we now on the cusp of seeing it in reality?

The power amassed through data by the dominant technology companies — Google, Facebook and Amazon — has already been shown to effectively crush economic competitors and distort markets in ways that make it virtually impossible to exercise informed choice. In this respect perhaps we are already serfs to the technology landowners — trading our data and identity for the promise of services.

In this respect perhaps we are already serfs to the technology landowners

With its plan to issue its own currency, Facebook has ticked one more box in the powers formerly reserved for nation-states. Are we on the way to a corporation with nation-like power?

To be a nation, you first need some real-estate and a population. The definition of the American term real-estate is apposite here. Throughout history, ownership of land has equalled wealth and power. Facebook’s real estate is digital — it controls access to significant swathes of the online world and that gives it wealth and power. If you doubt this just ask anyone in digital advertising how hard it is to actually see what goes on inside Facebook’s digital borders.