Users freely did unpaid labor that increased Facebook’s own value

Evidence

Well, Facebook gave you access to your “friends.” And now, much of the energy formerly devoted to blogs or other online projects was now channeled into upgrading one’s Facebook profile and, with it, the value of Facebook itself. In this way, the public became like renters willingly making extensive improvements to their landlord’s property, even as they were made to look at advertisements. Facebook’s ultimate success lay in this deeply ingenious scheme of attention arbitrage, by which it created a virtual attention plantation. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1011

Categorization

• SEED: The user-as-renter metaphor is a strong article framing for unpaid digital labor.
• XREF: connects to: Networked audiences force users into unpaid labor to keep their brand image pure — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 492; Social media participation constitutes unpaid labor from which platforms extract value — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 505; Free digital services are paid for by users’ attention. (+23 more)

Broader Connections

• Cloud capital’s key innovation is self-reproduction through unpaid user labor #expands (0.90) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 319
• Data exploitation resembles capitalism’s free ride on uncommodified life, not factory labor #expands (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 326