The European Union (“EU”), among other polities, has illuminated the ways in which hegemonic digital platforms like Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Uber have disrupted the way the public understands competition, democracy, information, and data privacy. As detailed in a recent EU Commission report, the market power enjoyed by these and other digital monopolies entails not only risks to competition but also to consumer well-being itself. Tribunals from diverse countries such as Australia, the U.S., and the UK reached similar conclusions. In fact, multiple court rulings and public investigations have established that the data of 85 million Facebook users were traded, exposed, and commodified for political purpose in violation, not only of Facebook’s own terms and conditions, but of various national and international laws and treaties. Such data exploitation threatens the privacy of users. And although these privacy concerns are serious, they are not the only threat.
The-Crimes-of-Digital-CapitalismThe Crimes of Digital Capitalism
