#DeleteFacebook: From Popular Protest to a New Model of Platform Capitalism?. Issue 5 (3rd September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mills, Stuart
• Is Part Of: New political economy. Volume 26:Issue 5(2021)
• Page Start: 851
• Page End: 868
• Publication Date: 2021-09-03
• Subjects: Bottom up data trust -- platform capitalism -- Facebook -- data stewardship; P16 -- P48; Economics -- Periodicals; International economic relations -- Periodicals; 330.05
• DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2020.1858777
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1356-3467

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In March 2018, a series of newspaper articles about the subversive use of the social media platform Facebook during various elections in 2016 were published. These revelations produced a backlash against the platform, which resulted in a popular hashtag, #DeleteFacebook . This article uses the # DeleteFacebook campaign as a case study to analyse the contemporary model of platform capitalism. Furthermore, by introducing emerging literature on data trusts – specifically, the notion of a bottom up data trust – this paper argues the # DeleteFacebook campaign reveals, both in its conception and in its ultimate failure, a desire for an alternative model of platform capitalism. By drawing on the # DeleteFacebook campaign, this article argues that a bottom up data trust designed to empower individual users can resolve many of the initial grievances, and barriers to success, experienced by the campaign.