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An intellectual history of digital colonialism

Toussaint Nothias

Journal of Communication2025https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf003article
ABDC A
Weight
0.64

Abstract

In recent years, the scholarly critique of tech power as a form of digital colonialism has gained prominence. Scholars from various disciplines—including communication, law, computer science, anthropology, and sociology—have turned to this idea (or related ones such as tech colonialism, data colonialism, and algorithmic colonization) to conceptualize the harmful impact of digital technologies globally. This article reviews significant historical precedents to the current critique of digital colonialism and further shows how digital rights activists from the Global South have been actively developing and popularizing these ideas over the last decade. I argue that these two phenomena help explain why scholars from varied disciplines developed adjacent frameworks simultaneously and at this specific historical juncture. The article also proposes a typology of digital colonialism around six core features. Overall, this article encourages historicizing current debates about tech power and emphasizes the instrumental role of nonscholarly communities in knowledge production.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf003

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@article{toussaint2025,
  title        = {{An intellectual history of digital colonialism}},
  author       = {Toussaint Nothias},
  journal      = {Journal of Communication},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf003},
}

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An intellectual history of digital colonialism

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Evidence weight

0.64

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.67 × 0.4 = 0.27
M · momentum0.95 × 0.15 = 0.14
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.