Resistance to data colonialism must confront global capitalism, not just platforms

Evidence

The path away from data colonialism will start when we reclaim the capacity to connect that human beings have always possessed, and we decide that today’s costs of connection are neither necessary nor worth paying. The struggle is a global one: it matters for humanity as a whole, not just for market democracies, and it confronts capitalism as a whole, not just social media. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 650

Categorization

• XREF: Locates the book’s argument in the rival-school frame: connects to the earlier distinction between data colonialism and narrower attention/surveillance critiques that target only platform companies. — connects to: 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 can only be understood within the longer history of colonialism and capitalism — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 57; Apple participates in data colonialism despite its privacy-branded marketing — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 81 (+12 more)
• SEED: Possible essay angle: why scholar critiques of Big Tech that stop at ‘platform regulation’ are structurally insufficient without confronting capitalism itself.

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value #corroborates (0.88) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 365
• Data colonialism is jointly driven by corporate and state power #expands (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 162