Data colonialism exceeds any single scandal or company’s data practices.

Evidence

“THIS IS WHAT MODERN COLONIALISM LOOKS LIKE.” So tweeted Christopher Wylie, the whistle-blower who kicked off the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal in March 2018.1 Wylie was referring to Cambridge Analytica’s plans to expand its operations in India for using social media targeting to influence the political process there. But the scale and scope of data colonialism is much wider than the malfeasance of a few overweening data marketers and their in-house psychologists. It extends much wider even than Facebook’s normal practices of data extraction and data licensing that the scandal opened to view. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 60

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the scope of data colonialism as systemic, not reducible to Cambridge Analytica or Facebook’s own malfeasance.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s attention/surveillance school work on platform power — the rivalry between ‘data colonialism’ and ‘surveillance capitalism’ as frames for the same extractive economy. — connects to: Data colonialism is jointly driven by corporate and state power — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 162; Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 365; Data colonialism is not a Western-only project but operates globally and within societies — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 100

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism is jointly driven by corporate and state power #expands (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 162
• 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 is not a Western-only project but operates globally and within societies #expands (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 100