Podcast: 'Big Tech' and the threat to democracy

The Nordic countries know all too well about the power struggle of our digital age. This region is the most digitalised in the world and has some of the longest-running traditions of democracy.

In this episode of the Nordic talk series we meet Margrethe Vestager, the Danish EU commissioner for competition policy, Hanne Aho, president of the Union of Journalists in Finland, and Shoshana Zuboff, author and Charles Edward Wilson professor emeritus at Harvard Business School.

In the podcast they talk about three major questions: What does the power held by big tech mean for a democratic society, what should be the responsibilities for digital gate keepers and do common people have any power to influence these giants?

"Right now, in particular because of big tech, we are being more and more polarised", says Vestager - internationally known for fighting with the big tech giants in her role as EU commissioner.

Shoshana Zuboff, author of the bestselling book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, says: "What we are witnessing is what I'm calling an epistemic coup, that means a revolution in the ownership and concentration of knowledge".

You can listen to the newest Nordic Talk podcast, Big Tech's Threat to Democracy here or your preferred podcast service here.

The podcast is part of the Nordic Council of Ministers' concept Nordic Talks, a podcast series in which some of the brightest Nordic minds discuss global challenges with people from around the world. The Nordic Talks project is part of the strategy for international branding of the Nordic Region.

The Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Council are the main forums for official Nordic cooperation, which involves Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland.

Read about the Nordic Council of Ministers Vision 2030 here and here.