Data colonial extraction persists by converting data relations into durable social relations

Evidence

Like historical colonialism, data colonialism would be inherently unstable if it could not translate its methods into more enduring forms of social relations. As Nick Dyer-Witheford pointed out in an early analysis, capitalism has always approached the internet as a domain in which control over the communicative capacity of individuals would allow capital to appropriate not just labor but also, as Marx himself put it, “its network of social relations.” Data colonialism extends this network well beyond communicative capacities, ensuring the continuity of data appropriation across an expanding array of social relations. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 84

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the ‘small acts of decorum’ reading purpose — durable extraction normalizes itself through social forms, echoing Marx’s own framework the reader holds. — connects to: Data extraction functions like colonial resource appropriation despite different modes — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 27; Colonial extraction logics are structurally recapitulated in contemporary data platforms — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 346; 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 (+9 more)
• QUESTION: What exactly distinguishes ‘data colonialism’ from the broader Marxist network-appropriation point Dyer-Witheford makes? The passage asserts but doesn’t fully delimit the difference.

Broader Connections

• Colonial extraction logics are structurally recapitulated in contemporary data platforms #corroborates (0.95) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 346
• Data colonialism extracts human life as data for profit through data relations. #corroborates (0.93) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 32
• Platform data extraction continues historical colonialism’s logic of appropriation #corroborates (0.91) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 398
• Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value #expands (0.88) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 365
• Data acquires extractability only through socially constructed relations, not as a natural given #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 133
• Micro-level data relations are rendered commonsensical by extractive rationalities #qualifies (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 297