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In modern elections, the ballot box matters less than the data behind it, and Peter Thiel knows this. 

As a co-founder of Palantir, early Facebook investor, and political megadonor, Thiel doesn’t just fund candidates. He helps develop tools aimed more at manipulating than simply influencing the electorate.

Palantir, built on government surveillance contracts, is part of the same ecosystem that birthed Cambridge Analytica. In 2018, it was revealed that the firm had harvested data from tens of millions of Facebook users through a fake quiz app. 

That data fueled psychological profiles used to microtarget voters with fear-based political ads, especially in swing states. This wasn’t campaigning. It was digital psyops.

Cambridge Analytica worked for Trump’s 2016 campaign, boasting it could exploit voters’ fears, beliefs, and vulnerabilities. The firm ran billions of microtargeted ads through Facebook to suppress turnout or flip votes.

Thiel stood at both ends of this operation. While formal ties between Palantir and Cambridge Analytica remain unconfirmed, one Palantir employee allegedly worked for Cambridge Analytica while still on Palantir’s payroll, exposing shared staff and overlapping ideology. Neither Thiel nor Palantir has answered for this.

When Facebook admitted that it mishandled 87 million users’ data, the fallout was merely cosmetic. A fine here. A shuttered firm there. Thiel simply pivoted, bankrolling far-right candidates like JD Vance and Blake Masters who echo anti-democratic and white nationalist rhetoric. This appears strategic rather than just random.

Oracle, a longtime surveillance contractor founded on CIA funding, now holds US  TikTok data from ByteDance. But under China’s 2017 intelligence law the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can still access all that data. Oracle founder Larry Ellison, an ally of Thiel’s, helps lead a surveillance-capitalist bloc shaping public opinion through platforms, contracts, and algorithms — not elections.

The issue isn’t whether Thiel tried to rig an election. It’s that we built a mechanism where someone like him could. 

Manipulation of the public becomes easy using this system and various digital assets like ​​Social Mapper, a facial recognition tool that automatically searches for targets across eight social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, the Russian social networking site VKontakte, and China’s Weibo and Douban, based on names and pictures.

The Darker Threads: Epstein, Media Warfare

Understanding Thiel’s power means looking beyond political donations and data firms. It requires digging into the deeper, darker networks he moves through, networks involving media suppression, predatory figures, and openly anti-democratic views.

In 2016 Thiel secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker, calling it revenge for being outed as gay, a “specific deterrence.” It wasn’t just personal; it showed how billionaires can quietly destroy media or people they dislike, without oversight or accountability.

According to Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, Thiel appeared multiple times in Jeffrey Epstein’s 2014 calendar. Meetings were scheduled at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, sometimes one-on-one, sometimes with other high-profile figures like Thomas Barrack. These meetings occurred after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sex crimes involving minors.

Thiel has confirmed that he met Epstein but claimed he “didn’t think enough” about what Epstein’s agenda might have been. This excuse, used by many in Epstein’s orbit, fails to explain why any tech mogul would knowingly engage with a convicted predator who records his associates. It also fails to explain a more alarming detail: Epstein invested $40 million in Valar Ventures, a firm co-founded by Thiel. That investment reportedly grew to $170 million.

This wasn’t just a social overlap. It was a significant financial relationship, one that raises urgent questions about how Thiel fits into the broader power broker networks Epstein’s alleged intelligence operations cultivated and exploited.

Rejecting Democracy, Embracing the Bunker

Thiel’s disdain for democratic institutions isn’t speculative, it’s explicit. In a 2009 essay for the libertarian publication Cato Unbound, he wrote:

I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.

This isn’t just talk. Thiel’s politics reject democracy as weak and chaotic, favoring rule by a wealthy technocratic elite. His investments aim to shield power from public oversight.

His escape plans are concrete. He funded the Seasteading Institute to create offshore city-states beyond regulation. He bought a remote New Zealand property, widely seen as a doomsday bunker, and gained citizenship there after spending only 12 days in the country. Thiel isn’t trying to save democracy; he’s planning to abandon it.

The Billionaire Blueprint for Undermining Voting

Six years after Cambridge Analytica’s collapse, the system that enabled it is not just intact, it’s more dangerous than ever. AI deepfakes and hypertargeted ads have made manipulation easier and more effective.

The same billionaires, data firms, and surveillance platforms still control the hidden levers of power.

No one is facing any real consequences, not Thiel, Palantir, Facebook, or even TikTok, which stays in the US while its algorithm remains Chinese-owned. 

Trump is willing to settle for a symbolic deal while doing nothing to address the core security issue, likely for personal branding and political gain. Meanwhile, China may be trading TikTok compliance for US tech concessions, like easing chip restrictions. 

It’s all political theater, not genuine protection.

Amazon is already rolling out AI surveillance tech to control US citizens, after they helped build the Chinese surveillance state. 

Also, starting in December, Amazon is adding facial recognition called “Familiar Faces” to their Ring cameras. So every time you pass one of their devices, Amazon is stealing your face for their private facial database and you have no control.

The media moves on, but the billionaires and tech giants remain. Democracy weakens, shaped by those who buy influence with data.

Without action, 2016 won’t serve as a warning, it will become a blueprint. The tools remain, and have only grown stronger, as has the threat. It can happen again, and chances are, it will. 

The Wall Street Firms That Kept Ties With Jeffrey Epstein Until the End

From The Wall Street Journal: “From TD Bank to Honeycomb Partners, several hedge funds and banks were linked to the wealthy sex offender.”

Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Spy Industry Connections

From Reason: “After his first arrest for sex crimes, Jeffrey Epstein tried to get into a new line of work: surveillance. In 2015, he partnered with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to invest in a security tech startup called Reporty Homeland Security, now known as Carbyne. Leaked emails show that Epstein was using Barak to seek out opportunities in the surveillance industry and build connections with powerful figures around the globe, including American businessman Peter Thiel, the former director of Israeli signals intelligence, and two people in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s circle.”

Jeffrey Epstein Set Up Meetings With Trump Associates — Including Peter Thiel and Thomas Barrack — Before 2016 Election, Report Says

The author writes, “Jeffrey Epstein set up several meetings with people close to … President Donald Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, including billionaire PayPal and Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel — raising speculation that Epstein sought to penetrate Trump’s orbit as his political prospects were on the rise.”

Peter Thiel Is Taking a Break From Democracy

From The Atlantic: “It’s one of his many, many disappointments.”

Peter Thiel Justifies Suit Bankrupting Gawker, Claiming To Defend Journalism

The author writes, “Tech billionaire Peter Thiel defended his decision to finance a lawsuit that bankrupt Gawker Media … saying the news site was willing ‘to exploit the internet without moral limits’ and ‘did something beyond the pale’ by publishing a former wrestler’s sex tape.