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The "merchantable gratuitousness" platforms and the Free Digital Labor controversy: a new form of exploitation?
[Les plateformes de la gratuité marchande et la controverse autour du Free Digital Labor : une nouvelle forme d’exploitation ?]

Author

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  • Carlo Vercellone

    (CEMTI - Centre d'études sur les médias, les technologies et l'internationalisation - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis)

Abstract

Cognitive capitalism and the informational revolution have gone hand in hand with a blurring of the boundaries between work and leisure time. At the heart of this evolution is the rise of platform capitalism, and in particular the "merchantable gratuitousness" platforms, like Google and Facebook, which have now taken first place in the ranking of world firms in terms of stock market capitalisation and profitability. Their profit model is based on the logic of multi-sided markets and combines the sale of online advertising and the extraction of user data. The users thus represent both the product and the producers of the main raw material underlying the organisation of the advertising market for merchantable gratuitousness platforms. This is called Free Digital Labor. This concept refers to the activity, apparently both gratuitous and self-governing, performed, often unknowingly, by a multitude of individuals on the internet for the benefit of big internet oligopolies and data industries. The Free Digital Labor thesis is highly controversial. It is often rejected by means of three main arguments: 1. it would be, not labor, but the intangible capital of the algorithm which, through an automated process, would extract and create most of the value; 2. the Free Digital Labor would escape not only the canonical criteria of wage labor, but also the anthropological definition of labor as a conscious and voluntary goal-oriented activity; 3. the free services proposed by the platforms would be remuneration in kind, excluding any relationship of exploitation. Our contribution aims to clarify the terms of this debate and to respond to these objections through a historical and theoretical analysis of the changes in the capital-labor relationship that occurred under the aegis of platform capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo Vercellone, 2020. "The "merchantable gratuitousness" platforms and the Free Digital Labor controversy: a new form of exploitation? [Les plateformes de la gratuité marchande et la controverse autour du Free ," Post-Print hal-02554288, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02554288
    DOI: 10.21494/ISTE.OP.2020.0502
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02554288
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

    Algorithmes; données; Karl Marx KEYWORDS cognitive capitalism; Free Digital Labor; marches multi-versants; multi-sided markets; data; Algorithms; Free Digital Labour; Karl Marx; MOTS-CLES capitalisme cognitif; capitalisme des plateformes; platform capitalism;
    All these keywords.

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