Data colonialism replaces cheap resources with cheap social data as its raw material

Evidence

Instead of the appropriation of cheap natural resources and cheap labor, the new colonialism is premised on the “natural” availability of “cheap” social data. As corporations engage in new forms of exploration, expansion, exploitation, and extermination, a new capitalist mode of production emerges (just as industrial capitalism emerged during the colonial era to replace earlier tributary modes of production). — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 579

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precisely defines what data colonialism’s ‘extraction’ is: not resources or labor but the ‘naturally’ available ‘cheap’ social data.
• XREF: Parallels F. attention/surveillance-school work by Zuboff’s surveillance capitalism — ‘behavioral surplus’ as the analogous raw material. — 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; Data colonialism fuses economic and cognitive power in an order as durable as capitalism — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 30; 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 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value #expands (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 365