Colonized countries feed raw data into a value chain whose profits accrue to colonizers
Evidence
In a study on development and growth, Steven Weber75 describes the economic imbalance that can result when one side (the colonized) provides the “raw” data, and the other does all the capturing, the processing, the analysis, and the creation of value-added products that the colonized cannot develop on their own and which they must buy at a disadvantage. As has been the case throughout the history of colonialism, this results in the colonizers becoming richer and more powerful, and the colonized underdeveloped and dependent. “The users in [disadvantaged] countries get to consume the products but are shut out of the value-add production side of the data economy,” Weber writes. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 333
Categorization
- XREF: Extends the data-colonialism frame in explicit structural terms; connects to debates on global digital labor and the ‘platform economy’ literature (e.g. Casilli). — connects to: Data is defined by its external storage infrastructure and profit destination — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 31; Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 32; Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 365 (+3 more)
- SEED: A piece on how the raw-data/refined-data split mirrors historical raw-materials colonial economics — the ‘analogical’ power of the metaphor could be tested against actual data-economy value chains.
- DEFINE: Concretely specifies what ‘colonial’ means in data colonialism: one side provides raw input, the other owns capture, processing, and value-add.
Broader Connections
- Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations.
#expands(0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 32 - Data colonialism replaces cheap resources with cheap social data as its raw material
#epitomizes(0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 579 - Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value
#expands(0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 365 - Data colonialism serves capitalism’s drive to maximize control of production inputs.
#expands(0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 106