If you were to read the simple explanation of what Palantir Technologies is, it would be a “data integration and analytics platform” company that has contracts with federal agencies, state and local governments, international organizations, and also private companies. It has been recently attempting to gain more contracts with the governments of various European nations (which should be rejected IMHO).
The company was founded back in 2003 with one of its main founders/investors being Peter Thiel (who I’ve mentioned numerous times before as one of the techno-fascist that is one-third of the PayPal mafia broligarchy). The company first became profitable in 2023 with Wall Street pumping the company as a future “darling” (my advice is to not invest in this company unless you want to support techno-fascism).
At a deeper level, much of their operating platforms (Palantir AIP, Palantir Apollo, Palantir Foundry, Palantir Gotham) are used heavily in surveillance utilizing artificial intelligence (which again, has proven itself to be a “garbage in, garbage out” system when it comes to accuracy) and facial recognition. Given the current geopolitical climate, this is highly problematic while in the U.S. especially under the current regime, being used for targeting specific groups by law enforcement including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Since 2013, large swaths of the U.S. government has been clients of Palantir; CIA, DHS, FBI, NSA, U.S. military (Marine Corps, Air Force, Special Operations Command, the United States Military Academy), the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization and Allies, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, NIH, and the CDC.
Palantir’s Wikipedia entry summarizes just how vast their reach has been in both government and the private sector. But what has drawn even more recent attention is a manifesto released recently by the company that has long time employees questioning their own role in what they’ve enabled.
Ars Technica details internal company comms by the rank and file as a company “descending into fascism”. Last week, Palantir CEO Alex Karp posted a 22-point manifesto that exemplifies what happens when an ideologue has significant sums of money “dropped on their head” where they now gain this huge influence and megaphone, to now amplify out to the rest of the world, their fantastical and often times villainous thoughts of how the world should work.
The above drew global criticism where Karp has made himself to look and sound like the super villain that he is (associated with the likes of other techno-fascists counterparts like Peter Thiel).
The company unsurprisingly has a special voting structure for the companies shares (Class A, B and F) where the Class F shares are owned equally by the three founders (Thiel, Karp, and Cohen) and ensures them a 49.99% voting interest regardless of the number of other shares they hold or the number of new shares the company issues. Translation: nearly impossible to hold them accountable (similar to Zuckerberg at Meta).
This manifesto itself is biased crap (emphasizing autocratic, westernized military power) that no publicly traded company (as its role as a contractor to both governments and private companies) should be engaging in. I as a private citizen have my own opinions as well and they are just that, personal opinions. I know that I spout my own bullshit at times but they are limited to this site. But I also realize the megaphone effect of these folks (what money and the resulting influence/power that comes with that) where you then have a personal responsibility to NOT engage in such blatant manifestos.
Given how broadly intertwined Palantir’s platforms are now in governments and private companies across the world are, taken together with the cast of villains that invest in and run the company, it’s really the more evil company than even Meta is (doesn’t make it lesser of an evil nor suddenly make Zuckerberg a saint –they are all in the top 10 of evil companies/people as far as I am concerned).
