Rezgar Akrawi: Digital Socialism and the Democratization of Knowledge

A section from the book Nationalizing Artificial Intelligence: Digital Capitalism, Class Struggle, Digital Socialism by Özcan Yazıcı

Introduction: Rezgar Akrawi

Introduction

The text below is a section from the book Yapay Zekayı Kamulaştırmak: Dijital Kapitalizm, Sınıf Mücadelesi, Dijital Sosyalizm (Nationalizing Artificial Intelligence: Digital Capitalism, Class Struggle, Digital Socialism), published on 31 March 2026 in 251 pages in Turkish, in electronic format.

The book’s author, Özcan Yazıcı, is a graduate of Istanbul University’s Faculty of Economics, Department of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations, and a journalist who has served as head of the Bursa branch of the Contemporary Journalists Association and as founding chair of the Bursa Internet Journalists Association. He is the founder of the platforms bursaport.com and solgelecek.org. Alongside his own name, the book credits the Gemini model as co-author, within what he calls a “human and artificial intelligence collaboration model” applied to data analysis, research and content structuring.

The book rests on a single thesis it announces in its title: that artificial intelligence is neither a technological leap nor a productivity tool. It is a new field of ownership in which the means of production, knowledge and social relations are being redefined, and this immense power is today confined within the digital monopolies of Silicon Valley and the narrow corridors of global capital. The book asks: why does a technology fed by humanity’s collective intelligence and data serve the profit hunger of a handful of elites? It draws on close to eight hundred academic and contemporary sources in answering, and joins theoretical debate to a practical thesis on nationalization.

The book is consistent with the idea it defends in its very method of publication. It is available in full and free of charge under a Creative Commons licence (Attribution, NonCommercial, ShareAlike), and its publisher states that “the idea of nationalization comes to life through the book’s own distribution model.”

The book devotes a wide chapter to surveying contemporary theorists of digital socialism, one by one and in sequential numbering, setting out each thinker’s thesis, central concepts and position in the debate. Among the figures given sections of their own are Michael Löwy and Victor Wallis, and among the names present in the book are David Harvey and Antonio Negri. One section of this chapter carries the title “Rezgar Akrawi: Digital Socialism and the Democratization of Knowledge,” and is followed immediately by the section devoted to Victor Wallis and ecosocialist technology.

What follows is a complete translation of that section.

Digital Socialism and the Democratization of Knowledge

Rezgar Akrawi approaches artificial intelligence and digital communication technologies as a global “knowledge revolution” and as a field of class struggle, and he builds the discussion on the concept of digital socialism against the monopolization of knowledge. For Akrawi, if artificial intelligence is taken out of the hands of capital and nationalized, it becomes the most powerful democratic instrument for enabling oppressed peoples and the working class to determine their own destiny.

The Class Character of the Digital Sphere and Knowledge Monopolies

Akrawi argues that neither the internet nor artificial intelligence is a neutral technology, and that each is an ideological terrain.

The knowledge oligarchy: The big technology corporations have established a “knowledge oligarchy” by controlling the production and distribution of knowledge through AI algorithms. Akrawi points out that this situation suppresses the voice of the peoples of the Global South and reproduces exploitation within the digital sphere.
Algorithmic censorship and domination: Within the existing structure of ownership, artificial intelligence does not function merely as an instrument of efficiency. It functions at the same time as a censorship mechanism that filters out dissenting voices and reinforces the dominant ideology.
Modern Discussion: A Model of a Digital Commons

The Modern Discussion platform, founded by Akrawi, offers a practical model of how artificial intelligence and digital networks might be organized from a socialist perspective.

Sharing knowledge without charge: For Akrawi, knowledge must be open to everyone on equal terms, exactly like air and water. Artificial intelligence should serve as a “universal librarian” that gathers this knowledge and delivers it to every person in their own language.
A secular and democratic digital culture: AI algorithms should be reprogrammed around a logic that gives priority to secularism, scientific thinking and human rights, in place of religious bigotry and nationalist hate speech.
Nationalization: Building Digital Socialism

From Akrawi’s perspective, nationalizing artificial intelligence means transferring ownership of the “means of knowledge production” to the people.

Artificial intelligence for the public good: Nationalization means that artificial intelligence be used to raise the educational and intellectual level of society, rather than for profit alone. Technology must be taken out of its role as capital’s “apparatus of surveillance” and turned into an “instrument of enlightenment” in the hands of the people.
Global digital solidarity: Nationalized AI infrastructures should establish a network of solidarity that crosses national borders. Akrawi argues that digital socialism can succeed only through a global knowledge-sharing network, a global digital commons.
An Artificial Intelligence of the Oppressed

Rezgar Akrawi sees in artificial intelligence the gravedigger of capitalism, and calls for it to play, once radically nationalized, a key role in the transition to a classless society. For Rezgar Akrawi, nationalizing artificial intelligence means taking technology out of its role as an instrument of domination in the hands of a minority and turning it into the infrastructure of a “digital democracy” that serves the collective consciousness of humanity. Once ownership of artificial intelligence is socialized, knowledge will cease to be a commodity and will become the foundational pillar of a free society.

Source: Özcan Yazıcı and Gemini, Yapay Zekayı Kamulaştırmak: Dijital Kapitalizm, Sınıf Mücadelesi, Dijital Sosyalizm, section 6.30. Publisher: Özcan Yazıcı, 31 March 2026, 251 pages, ISBN 9786250060070, Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Book preview on Google Books
https://www.google.dk/books/edition/Yapay_Zekay%C4%B1_Kamula%C5%9Ft%C4%B1rmak/fBzNEQAAQBAJ?hl=da&gbpv=1&dq=Rezgar+Akrawi&pg=PT116&-print-sec=frontcover

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