Giving by Taking Away: Big Tech, Data Colonialism, and the Reconfiguration of Social Good

Authors

  • João Carlos Magalhães Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
  • Nick Couldry Media and Communications Department, London School of Economics and Political Science

Keywords:

datafication, social good, Big Tech, data colonialism, political economy

Abstract

Big Tech companies have recently led and financed projects that claim to use datafication for the “social good.” This article explores what kind of social good it is that this sort of datafication engenders. Drawing mostly on the analysis of corporate public communications and patent applications, it finds that these initiatives hinge on the reconfiguration of social good as datafied, probabilistic, and profitable. These features, the article argues, are better understood within the framework of data colonialism. Rethinking “doing good” as a facet of data colonialism illuminates the inherent harm to freedom these projects produce and why, to “give,” Big Tech must often take away.

Author Biographies

João Carlos Magalhães, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

João Carlos Magalhães is a researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, in Berlin. He is interested in the intersection of datafication and power, and the ways in which the transformation of the latter by the former affects democratic culture and the enactment of freedom.research interest lies atresearch interest lies at Detected language : English  

Nick Couldry, Media and Communications Department, London School of Economics and Political Science

Nick Couldry is Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. As a sociologist of media and culture, he approaches media and communications from the perspective of the symbolic power that has been historically concentrated in media institutions. He is interested in how media and communications institutions and infrastructures contribute to various types of order (social, political, cultural, economic, ethical). 

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Published

2021-01-01

Issue

Vol. 15 (2021)

Section

Articles

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