Predatory Data by Anita Say Chan
💻 From Eugenics to Algorithms: 5 Shocking Truths About Big Tech's Racist Roots
For the Love of History Podcast Blog
When we think of eugenics, we tend to picture Nazi Germany or outdated pseudoscience tucked away in dusty archives. But what if we told you the tools born from eugenics are the very same ones powering today’s Big Tech empires?
In our latest episode of For the Love of History, we sat down with Dr. Anita Say Chan—scholar, educator, and author of Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future. What she shared completely rewired our understanding of modern technology. Buckle up, friends—this one’s going to shake your feed.
1. 📊 Statistical Regression Was Invented… By a Eugenicist
Ever wondered how Netflix recommends your next binge or how Instagram knows what ad to serve you? That’s predictive analytics, and it’s rooted in a method called statistical regression. What you probably didn’t know? It was developed by Francis Galton—founder of the eugenics movement and cousin to Charles Darwin. His obsession with “improving” the human race using data lives on in every personalized algorithm.
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2. 🏛️ American Universities Championed Eugenics
Before eugenics became synonymous with Nazi horror, it was a proudly taught discipline in the U.S. By the 1920s, three-quarters of American universities were teaching eugenics, including Ivy Leagues like Harvard and Stanford. These programs helped shape immigration policy, forced sterilization laws, and the racialized foundations of who got to belong in “America’s future.”
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3. 🧬 Techno-Eugenics Is Real—And It’s Happening Now
So what is techno-eugenics, exactly? Dr. Chan explains it as the modern digital evolution of old-school eugenics—a spectrum of practices where algorithms, policies, and platforms reinforce racial and class hierarchies. Whether it’s under-moderated hate speech or biased facial recognition, today’s tech landscape is not neutral—it’s coded with the past.
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4. 🌍 Facebook Ignored Global Atrocities Fueled by Its Platform
One of the most chilling examples? Facebook (now Meta) workers flagged that their platform was enabling hate speech-fueled violence in India and Myanmar, including attacks on Muslims and Dalits. But the company invested 84% of its safety resources in the U.S., despite being a dominant platform globally. The result? Digital tools used to incite real-world harm—again, in ways that echo the selective silence of past eugenics advocates.
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5. 🏛️ Tech Elites Want Power—Not Regulation
From Elon Musk to Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley giants are pushing hard against regulation—especially around AI and user safety. According to Dr. Chan, this reflects a dangerous ideology: that the “best and brightest” should govern the masses, no matter the consequences. Sound familiar? That’s straight from the eugenics playbook.
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🎧 Want More? Listen to the Full Episode
Hit play on this week’s For the Love of History episode for a deep (and slightly terrifying) dive into the racist roots of modern data science. Dr. Anita Say Chan will completely change the way you think about Big Tech.
📕 Find Anita’s book here!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review on your favorite podcast app. And if your algorithm lets you, grab Predatory Data and keep questioning the system.
