Palantir’s ‘Manifesto’ and the Digital Sovereignty of Other Nations

Imagine if a Brazilian data analysis and artificial intelligence company—founded with seed money from the Brazilian intelligence agency, with the Ministry of Defense as its principal client, and with contracts with security agencies in other countries—published a singular 22-point manifesto on a social media network. It declares that Brazil’s technological elite has “an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation,” that ethical debates about military technology are “theatrical” and a waste of time, that Brazil’s power makes possible “an extraordinarily long peace,” that the age of soft power is over, and that cultures which have not kept pace with Brazilian development “remain dysfunctional and regressive.”

Imagine, further, that this company held active contracts with public health and education agencies in the United States—contracts awarded without competitive tender through a triangulation with a local state-owned enterprise.

What might Washington’s response be? In the current diplomatic climate, it would probably be immediate and forceful. The ambassador would be summoned, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States activated, and congressional investigations launched. No government genuinely committed to national sovereignty would tolerate a foreign company, with ties to its intelligence community, operating within sensitive public systems while declaring explicit allegiance to another nation.