Digital enclosures fence off identity the way land enclosures fenced off land

Evidence

As with the original Enclosures, some form of fence would be necessary to keep the masses out of such an important resource. In the eighteenth century, it was land that the many were denied access to. In the twenty-first century, it is access to our own identity. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 297

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: extending the Enclosures analogy into identity-as-enclosed-resource for a piece on digital feudalism.
• XREF: connects to: Digital platform enclosure is continuous with historical land enclosure, transforming relational life into extraction — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 126; The new enclosures privatize access to identity, as the old ones privatized land; Data colonialism constitutes an antiecology that disrupts the self’s home space — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 606 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Digital platform enclosure is continuous with historical land enclosure, transforming relational life into extraction #corroborates (0.98) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 126
• The new enclosures privatize access to identity, as the old ones privatized land #exemplifies (0.95)
• Data colonialism constitutes an antiecology that disrupts the self’s home space #expands (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 606