Palantir Technologies is becoming an increasingly prominent supplier of data-analysis and artificial-intelligence systems to governments, militaries, police forces and other public institutions around the world. In response to its growing threat, Progressive International has launched the Palantir Pledge, a campaign aimed at public officials who want to challenge the company’s growing role in the state.

DiEM25 is a proud coalition partner in the campaign that calls on public officials – from local councillors and mayors to parliamentarians and ministers – to commit to removing Palantir from public institutions, establishing ethical standards for public procurement and investment, and protecting citizens’ fundamental rights.

The campaign comes amid Palantir’s involvement in military operations, border enforcement, policing and public-sector data systems. Progressive International brings attention to the fact that technologies developed and deployed in the context of Israel’s war in Gaza risk becoming a model for surveillance and automated decision-making far beyond the battlefield.

The question is therefore not simply what Palantir’s technology can do, but who controls it, what safeguards apply, and what happens when increasingly powerful systems become embedded in public institutions.

As our co-founder Yanis Varoufakis has stated, Palantir represents something larger than a technology company. Yanis provided a thorough analysis of Palantir’s Technological Republic, translating Palantir’s own stated ideas into what he sees as their real-world implications – from the expansion of surveillance to the growing role of private technology companies in state power.

The Palantir Pledge seeks to turn these concerns into concrete political commitments, placing democratic control, transparency and fundamental rights at the centre of decisions about the technologies governments procure and deploy.

From 29 September to 1 October, people from around the world will come together for the People vs Palantir global days of action with a simple goal: to organise our representatives to sign onto the Palantir Pledge. Sign here.

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