The CEO of controversial data-mining firm Palantir has claimed that the company's technology has prevented terrorist attacks in Europe, thereby implicitly saving the continent from the return of fascism.
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The fast-talking Alex Karp took to the stage at the FII Institute conference in Miami last week to tell the audience how proud he was (from the 1:57.00 timestamp onwards) that "innumerable terror attacks" had been stopped by Palantir in Europe. "In all modesty, if they were not stopped, you would have a very different political reality in the West. And that's just a fact," he said. "I love when I'm getting yelled at in cities in Europe… Keep yelling at me... the only reason why someone's not goose-stepping between me and you is my product. Say thank you," Karp said.
The CEO was referring to the marching style adopted by German and Italian fascists in the 20th century. From the 1920s to the 1940s, fascism came to prominence in Europe. Propelled by an ideology advocating racial purity, extreme nationalism and perpetual war, the trend culminated in the Second World War, which killed 15 million to 20 million people in Europe. German Nazis and their collaborators were responsible for the Holocaust, one of the most horrific events in human history.
But it is software — rather than the collective cultural memory of such events — that is preventing the return of the doctrine in Europe, Karp would have the audience believe.
As of last year, cops in several states of Germany are not allowed to use automated data analysis from Palantir, the CIA-backed surveillance software company. The Federal Constitutional Court made the ruling in March 2023, calling such processing "unconstitutional."
The plaintiffs had argued that the so-called "Hessendata" program – based on Palantir's Gotham platform – facilitated "predictive" policing by profiling suspects before any crime was committed.
Palantir strategy chief Jan Hiesserich told German national Handelsblatt at the time: "Our customers alone determine which data is relevant to the investigation in accordance with relevant legal provisions," adding: "Palantir brings the software to the data, not the data to the software." It told the FT that "Palantir's software can be flexibly adapted to new legal frameworks thanks to its high configurability."
Palantir was founded by Peter Thiel, who made his money and name co-founding PayPal. It attracted early investment from the US Central Intelligence Agency's venture capital arm In-Q-Tel, and won early contracts in US defense and intelligence applications of its data analytics technologies, along the way supporting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE), which was accused of separating children from their families.
Estimates suggest that Palantir commands a little less than 2 percent of the data analytics market, which is a small fraction of the total enterprise software market.
But let that not get in the way of Karp's hyperbolic fantasies.
"Look, the fundamental reason for America's outperformance right now is tech [and] Palantir plays an enormous role on the commercial side," he said.
The FII Institute, which hosted the conference during which Karp performed, is a global nonprofit foundation with an investment arm designed to make an "impact on humanity." Karp's comments would certainly make an impact on any sane listener. ®
Source: The register