Data colonialism is an interlocking six-force system, not just platforms

Evidence

To sum up, the problem and challenge of contemporary data practices is neither data nor simply the particular platforms that have emerged to exploit data. The problem is the interlocking combination of six forces, unpacked in the previous chapters: an infrastructure for data extraction (technological, still expanding); an order (social, still emerging) that binds humans into that infrastructure; a system (economic) built on that infrastructure and order; a model of governance (social) that benefits from that infrastructure, order, and system and works to bind humans ever further into them; a rationality (practical) that makes sense of each of the other levels; and finally, a new model of knowledge that redefines the world as one in which these forces together encompass all there is to be known of human life. Data, in short, is the new means to remake the world in capital’s image. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 582

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precisely delimits the scope of ‘data colonialism’ as a six-layer system (infrastructure, order, system, governance, rationality, knowledge) rather than any single extractive mechanism.
• XREF: The six-force framing parallels how the attention/surveillance school describes the attention economy, but re-centers it on extraction rather than attention capture — a key divergence point for the reader’s comparative project. — connects to: Data processes create a new injustice that is simultaneously social and cognitive. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 609; Quitting individual platforms leaves the data colonial order untouched — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 629; Resistance to data colonialism must confront global capitalism, not just platforms — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 650 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Resistance to data colonialism must confront global capitalism, not just platforms #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 650
• Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value #expands (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 365
• Platform data extraction continues historical colonialism’s logic of appropriation #exemplifies (0.80) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 398
• Data colonialism is jointly driven by corporate and state power #corroborates (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 162