This is different from tech corpo mass surveillance since the government has the authority to imprison, silence or kill dissidents (while Palantir doesn’t have that power since they’re a company, not the federal government). Put it this way, Palantir can only spy on people harvesting their data but cannot arrest them since they are not cops nor the FBI, meanwhile the government (via FBI, NSA or CIA) has the leverage to detain people.
Instead of Palantir harvesting people’s data, it’s the FBI or NSA themselves doing that building a profile based on the people they’re “keeping tabs” on, what would it be like if mass surveillance is endorsed by the government rather than tech companies in a dystopia? That data gets shared with state authorities (police or sheriff) in which they one day visit your home just because of the content you posted online.
That’s the same thing! Or do you honestly believe the US regime would go: “Oh boy, that’s a nice pile of data Google/Microsoft/Facebook/Amazon have there. Too bad we can’t get our hands on that. Oh welp 🤷”
They subpoena the corp in question and are handed the data.
And with the amount of government-aligned oligarchs at the top of various media houses it’d be endlessly naïve to assume the media they publish wasn’t parroting the government narrative. Just take the reporting regarding Israel’s atrocities (or lack thereof) for example.
It’s all about thought control. As you say, you can’t incarcerate an entire population. But you can make them believe they’re free.
Why would they subpoena it? Who do you think their customer is already? It’s not the people being spied on, I can tell you that.