Digital Capitalism and Alternatives

November 13, 2025

Digital capitalism shapes how we interact with technology, the world and even how we understand its role in society. These mechanisms tend to hide the true power relations while presenting inhumane technological developments as neutral, natural progress.

Core Mechanisms

Solutionism

Tech firms recast hard social problems as simple tech tasks. Debate over law and justice shifts into product tweaks.

Example: using filters and bots to police hate speech instead of asking who should set speech rules. This story defends deregulation, giant scale and ignores waste, labor abuse and social harm.

Forced Transparency and Self Tracking

People are scored nonstop: credit, clicks, steps, ratings. Being watched makes us adjust to please the watcher. Users are exposed; while platforms algorithms and business aims stay hidden. Long legal pages, secret algorithms and many confusing company layers. Self tracking is sold as freedom; it becomes self discipline to meet outside targets: fitness badges, five‑star gig ratings. Trust is demanded; proof is withheld.

Engineered Comparison

Likes, followers, ranks, streaks keep users chasing status. Games and rewards drive time on site and data flow. This is not random manipulation; it is the profit engine. Engagement feeds ads and prediction. People stay not from weakness but because exit costs social ties.

Supporting Stories

Dataism: Numbers are treated as pure truth; method bias is ignored. Tech inevitability: "Tech will happen anyway," killing democratic choice. Disruption myth: Breaking rules is praised as innovation; law evasion is rebranded. Sharing talk: Extractive platforms pose as neutral "sharing" spaces. Security frame: More surveillance is sold as safety; emergency logic never ends.

Results

Power pools in a few firms. Risk shifts to users and workers: algorithmic gig control, data leaks, biased automation. This is masked as efficiency and empowerment. Design choices are political choices.

Human Centered Technology

...serving humans instead of exploiting them for maximum profits.

Open Source

Code you can read, verify and change. True digital independence. In the future everyone may change their apps using local LLM's.

Local First

Data lives on your devices; sync only when you choose. Works offline. Cuts surveillance. Real ownership, not unread policies.

Open Standards and Interoperability

Systems talk through public protocols. You can move and keep contacts and data. Stops lock‑in. Forces competition on quality.

Privacy by Design

Collect the least data. Encrypt end to end. Use techniques that hide individuals in stats. Make abuse hard by architecture, not fragile policy.

Democratic Governance

Co‑ops, user boards, multi‑stakeholder councils. Invite affected groups into rule making. Example: civic platforms that enable public debate and consensus.

Alternative Economic Models

Platform Co‑ops: Worker/user owned services share profit fairly; aim for good work over raw growth.
Public Digital Infrastructure: Essential digital tools should be available as public goods (just like roads) and just be maintained without interest in profiting from it.
Commons Production: Shared, open projects (Linux, Wikipedia) show large systems can run without corporate control.

Regulation

Data Minimization: Collect only what you need; delete when done. Enforce it.
Algorithm Accountability: Explanations, audits, appeal paths for decisions on jobs, housing, credit, benefits.
Antitrust: Block monopoly mergers, split dominant firms, ban self‑dealing. Separate core platform from its own services.

Digital Literacy: Teach how platforms track, rank and shape behavior. Not just code—power analysis.
Collective Action: Unions, advocacy, movements change systems; single user choices rarely do.
Cultural Norms: If people expect data rights and low surveillance, firms must adapt. Norms spread through media, art, daily talk.

Working Examples

Mastodon: Decentralized social network; users pick servers and rules. Signal: Encrypted chat funded by donations, not data extraction. Fairphone: Repairable phones built for long use. Cities like Barcelona: Public digital platforms serving citizens.

Path Forward

Change needs tools, laws, ownership shifts and new norms together. Nothing is inevitable. We can choose designs that cut surveillance, spread power, support democracy and respect dignity.

Human tech serves people, not extracts from them. It shares power, not hoards it. It grows under public oversight, not private decree. Choose and build accordingly.

References

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