The Exploitation of User-Generated Content as Free Labour: Applying a Marxist view of Labour to Digital Platforms' Practices (A exploração dos conteúdos gerados pelos utilizadores como trabalho gratuito: aplicação de uma visão marxista do trabalho às práticas das plataformas digitais)

Abstract

Every moment, millions of posts, photos, videos and other forms of content are posted online by users of digital services across the globe. This content is created with much passion and effort, with little economic incentives besides fun and a collective desire to share knowledge and information with others. User-generated content, once a bedrock of the digital economy, in its gift element component, has become a subject to commodification by Big Tech corporations. Their platforms are using user-generated content as a crucial component of their business models, extracting value in the form of advertising revenue, without compensation the users by their creation. The situation has worsened with new shrouded practices that aim at capturing the intellectual property rights from their creators. In this text, we propose using Marxist theory of Labour to frame and criticize this paradigm, reflecting of possible future perils, with the rise of generative Artificial Intelligence.

Keywords: User-generated content, Karl Marx, Critical Theory of Labour, Immaterial Labour, Digital Economy, Sociology of Law, Artificial Intelligence

JEL Classification: K1, K24, Z13