Digital Colonialism and Heritage Preservation

Towards an Arab Resilient Framework in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Considering the dominance of Western digital platforms and technologies in heritage preservation processes, critical questions arise regarding the reproduction of colonial relations through digitization, which Schiller (1976) defines as an extension of Western hegemony through control over digital and knowledge infrastructures.

This paper examines how local archival systems in the Arab context are marginalized in favor of Western technical and cultural standards, leading to: the marginalization of local dialects and languages in AI tools; loss of cultural context when converting oral heritage into digital texts; and technological dependency due to Arab archives’ reliance on foreign closed-source platforms.

The research aims to achieve several objectives: first, to reveal the mechanisms of digital colonialism in heritage preservation projects through a critical analysis of Western AI tools in processing Arabic languages and documents; second, to assess the potential of decentralized alternatives (such as open-source blockchain) in resisting technological dependency; and finally, to propose a framework for a "digital colonialism-resistant archiving," based on algorithm localization, applying archival standards reflecting cultural diversity, and developing participatory governance models with local communities.

The study relies on a descriptive-analytical methodology, employing critical discourse analysis of the policies of dominant technological platforms in their handling of heritage. This will include a case study of a selected project from oral and documentary heritage documentation initiatives at the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, representing a local initiative with regional impact aiming to resist this hegemony.