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LORD SAATCHI

Your mind is the greatest natural resource of all and tech firms are stealing it

Your mind is 99 per cent of the revenue 'earned' by corporations like Google and Facebook — so it is only right to demand your share

PROSTITUTES get paid for access to their body. But what do you get paid for access to your mind? Nothing!

When you use your phone today, your head is served up on a plate.

 Your mind is the greatest natural resource of all and tech firms are stealing it
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Your mind is the greatest natural resource of all and tech firms are stealing it
 Google shareholders and Facebook boss Mark ­Zuckerberg are now worth $2.8TRILLION. How much are you worth?
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Google shareholders and Facebook boss Mark ­Zuckerberg are now worth $2.8TRILLION. How much are you worth?

Advertisers make a second-by-second market in you. Your mind is bought and sold by their computer programs — with no human intervention required.

You are the digital content they auction off for sale to the highest bidder. Billions of pounds pass before your eyes every day. But you don’t see a penny of it.

It’s unfair. Never has so much been taken from so many by so few.

So it is time to have a big redistribution of digital wealth.

Prostitutes get paid for access to their body. But what do you get paid for access to your mind? Nothing!

Lord Saatchi

Google shareholders and Facebook boss Mark ­Zuckerberg are now worth $2.8TRILLION. How much are you worth?

Remember, your mind is 99 per cent of the revenue of these corporations. So it is only right to demand your share.

The British people, who set the world an example in waging a revolutionary war against feudal slavery, now find themselves in the latest stage of wage-slavery, working for the benefit of these wealthy companies and ­billionaires.

The richest and strongest profit and grab most, while the weakest are utterly robbed, tormented, crushed and strangled.

YOU HAVE THE POWER

The tech multi-billionaires are, perhaps, some of the richest of all, and geographically the most secure.

They have profited more than all the rest from their unholy alliance with weak national governments, who say their own parliaments and laws are too small to control or regulate these giant global corporations.

Call it what it is — collusion, crony capitalism. The big companies and big government are hand in hand.

The House of Commons’ Digital Select Committee this week called the tech giants “digital gangsters”.

But even a good Saatchi alumnus like Damian Collins — the committee’s distinguished chairman — concedes the politicians have no power over these companies.

Instead, it’s time for the people — the customers who keep the tech companies afloat — to take a stand.

It is unfair that these few companies are so rich, and the many people are so poor.

So, I say: Let us march! We are 100 per cent on the side of the heroes. They are 100 per cent on the side of the villains. Black and white. No compromise.

When the tech companies say: “We agree in principle”, it means they will do nothing in practice.

They say fair exchange is no robbery. You provide them with all your personal details — your age, gender, every friend, every photo you send, every film you watch, every app you download, every website you visit, every message, every item you buy, everywhere you go and where you are now — and in return they give you the wonders of the internet world.

 When you use your phone today, your head is served up on a plate
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When you use your phone today, your head is served up on a plateCredit: Getty - Contributor
 Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright will take on several tech giants next week
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Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright will take on several tech giants next weekCredit: Rex Features

THIS IS A QUESTION OF MONEY

And as your bonus, they only send you “personalised” ads. So if you want a new shampoo they don’t “serve” you a dishwasher.

They are for the haves who hold power. We are for the have-nots.

This is not a question of “privacy”. Or “harmful material”. Or “election interference”.

This is a question of money.

They have too much. We have too little. So we will make what seems highly improbable in fact happen.

Every time Google or Facebook sell you to an advertiser, you should get paid for the privilege. Fair shares for all. The technology exists to make this possible.

 

The new tech billionaires once used to dream of changing the world. Now they’ve got the whole world, they don’t want to let it go

Lord Saatchi

YouTube already pays people for the number of times their uploaded data is viewed.

These companies only care about the millions of users they can sell to advertisers.

What was your name again? Here is your chance to get your own back. A business model that says I get 100 per cent and you get 0 per cent is not going to last.

The tech giants should remember what all Prime Ministers and Presidents usually learn too late.

We the people have all the power. It’s best not to push us to use it.

I say we need a popular uprising. A people’s revolution. Agitate! Create disenchantment! Build discontent!

GAINED MORE DIGNITY

Join me and say: Start spreading the news. I say we want control. Ownership of our own minds.

The new tech billionaires once used to dream of changing the world. Now they’ve got the whole world, they don’t want to let it go.

They used to say: Set sail for the end of the rainbow.

But now they say: Don’t rock the boat. They are turning into exactly the type of people they once condemned.

The time has come to call a halt to their complacency and self-satisfaction. Will this cost them money? Yes, peanuts.

But whatever it costs, it will be less than having the money dragged out of them.

A society without ownership is one in which inequality and resentment flourish.

Honour, common sense and the interest of the country require that all free British men and women, wherever they be, now fight for control of their own minds.

We will feel more responsible for our own lives.

And everyone will agree that this makes everything much fairer and that the people have gained more dignity and self-respect.

Molly Russell's dad says social media contributed towards his daughters death on This Morning


  • Lord Saatchi is a former chairman of the Conservative Party.

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