The 4X framework exposes continuity between historical and data colonialism

Evidence

It is not surprising that strategy video games, which are all about the expedient management of resources in the context of colonization, should follow this 4X model. But what of data colonialism? In this chapter, we use the framework of exploring, expanding, exploiting, and exterminating to conduct a transhistorical comparison of dispossession that will reveal continuities between historical colonialism and today’s data colonialism. To truly recognize the injustices of today, we need to look at them through the eyes of yesterday. By understanding the detailed parallels, we can uncover fully the coloniality3 of data relations, a concept that points to the broader continuities in how the legacy of historical colonialism resonates in the present—in this case, through social relations as abstracted and commodified by data. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 274

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘coloniality of data relations’ as the chapter’s core lens — the specific definitional construct this rival school is built on.
• XREF: The 4X model and transhistorical comparison map onto approaches in the surveillance-capitalism literature (Zuboff) and the extractive-economies frame; useful for mapping where data-colonialism critique overlaps with and diverges from attention/surveillance schools. — 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 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; Historical colonialism had four structural components that data colonialism may replicate. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 64 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Platform data extraction continues historical colonialism’s logic of appropriation #epitomizes (0.95) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 398
• Data colonialism requires transforming society itself, not just extracting value #expands (0.88) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 365
• Data colonialism replaces cheap resources with cheap social data as its raw material #corroborates (0.85) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 579