Choose your Poison: The Company Store vs. Data Colonialism as a Means of Understanding the Exploitative Potential of Asymmetry in Data Collection and Service Provision

This paper critiques the widely used metaphor of “data colonialism” and suggests that the "company town" model more accurately captures the structural asymmetries in data collection and service provision by major tech platforms. It explores how platform capitalism mirrors a system where a single firm issues IDs, governs digital infrastructure, moderates content, and extracts value primarily through user attention and data.