Incumbent non-tech corporations, not platforms alone, drive data colonialism’s expansion.

Evidence

Many believed that the world’s incumbent businesses were at risk of being marginalized. We had a different point of view. We did not believe the platform giants alone would dominate a data-centric economy—in large measure because they lack access to the most valuable sources of the world’s data: the 80 percent that is not searchable on the Web. The world’s incumbent businesses and institutions own and generate this data. … Much of data colonialism’s force in the social world comes from corporations of all types, with or without social media platforms, colonizing the world around them through the extraction of data. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 117

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the attention/surveillance school debate over whether platform giants or a broader data economy hold power; the 80-percent-unsearchable-data claim is a rival frame argument worth testing against dominant platform-centric accounts. — 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; Resistance to data colonialism must confront global capitalism, not just platforms — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 650; Global digital experience is controlled by US corporations despite non-US majorities. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 289
• QUESTION: Where does the 80-percent-not-searchable figure come from? Worth chasing for accuracy given the rhetorical weight placed on it.

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism is jointly driven by corporate and state power #corroborates (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 162
• Resistance to data colonialism must confront global capitalism, not just platforms #expands (0.82) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 650