Exploitation mechanisms in digital capitalism. Network surplus modes

Abstract

Materialistic thinking has provided us with very useful tools for the analysis of social processes. Surplus has been one of the most relevant findings in revealing the procedures for capital accumulation and exploitation. Nowadays, the surplus value has been transformed and adapted to a new ‘virtual territory’ offered by the Internet. This article distinguishes two modes of network surplus value. Those that come from the data and their expression, especially on social networks, are analyzed, as are those that are obtained thanks to the collaborative economy. The paper proposes not only its identification and criticism, but the use of socially useful production and, therefore, the democratization of production as tools to counter them.