#DeleteFacebook: From Popular Protest to a New Model of Platform Capitalism?

Stuart Mills

New Political Economy, 2021, vol. 26, issue 5, 851-868

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.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2020.1858777

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