Twitter, Google’s YouTube, and Facebook use the uncompensated labor of their users. These platforms sell that labor, as a media product, to other users and advertisers for tens of billions of dollars.

Granted, not every tweet is labor, and not every Facebook or Twitter user is a laborer. But people who contribute using their professional skills or in a work-like manner (for example citizen-journalists or scientists) are indeed laborers. A single post or tweet might express the results of weeks or months of investigative journalism or research.

Twitter started as a communication utility. YouTube marketed itself as a platform for self-expression. Facebook was something of both. However, things started to change as all three companies introduced significant requirements for user-produced content. Slowly, the requirements became stricter and longer, becoming almost product specifications for the content. Only YouTube financially compensates its user-contributors, but considers this a privilege, to be granted or withdrawn at will (“demonetization”). Continue reading Peonage Was Abolished. Do Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube Know? →