An Anatomy of Tech Dissent: A Typology and Framework for the Politics of Anti-Technology

Recent escalations in anti-technology sentiment, exemplified by the violent attack on OpenAI’s leadership and widespread non-violent protests that halted billions of dollars’ worth of data centre developments, underscore a growing and complex backlash against technological development and artificial intelligence (AI). This paper examines the expanding spectrum of contemporary tech dissent, ranging from peaceful grassroots advocacy movements such as StopAI and PauseAI to extremist factions employing sabotage and political violence. Amid this increasingly diverse and easily misinterpreted landscape, the paper fulfils two main objectives. First, it establishes a conceptual framework and typology to categorise anti-technology actors. This typology identifies three groups, namely the democratic dissenters, the saboteurs, and the anti-technology terrorists. Each category is further divided into two subcategories, depending on the strength, scope, and methods of their technological critiques. Second, drawing on Richard English’s foundational lessons on combating terrorism and political violence, it proposes four distinct policy recommendations to address anti-technology challenges in a balanced way./p>

About the speaker:

Mauro Lubrano is a Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath.

His research focuses on political violence and terrorism, with particular attention to the relationship between technology and political violence, as well as innovation processes within terrorist organisations. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Terrorism & Political Violence, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and Perspectives on Terrorism. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews. His first book, Stop the Machines: The Rise of Anti-Technology Extremism (Polity, 2025), explores the origins and evolution of anti-technology extremism, assessing its potential to emerge as a major driver of political violence.