The Valorization of Surveillance: Towards a Political Economy of Facebook

Abstract

Much excitement surrounds Facebook, the social networking site based on user-generated content that has attracted 64 million active users since its inception in 2004.This paper begins to outline a political economy of Facebook in an attempt to draw attention to the underlying economic relations that structure the website, and the way in which the site fits into larger patterns of contemporary capitalist development.Although Web 2.0 has presented a shift away from "old" top-down media models, there remains continuity through change: Facebook continues familiar models of extensive commodification, with surveillance playing a key role in this process.The emerging reliance on general intellect and free labour for the purpose of capital accumulation does represent a move away from a more passive conception of the audience commodity, yet it demonstrates the continuous march of capitalism into cyberspace under post-Fordist conditions.D epending on whom you ask, Facebook is either a revolution in social networking and the future of e-capitalism, or a place where excitable youth post too much information about themselves, risking exposure to stalkers or surveillance by employers, parents, and the CIA. 1 A political economy analysis of the social networking site reveals more complex dynamics at play than those expressed in the business press or in mainstream media's moral fright; dynamics that reflect broader trends in the development of the digital economy.Facebook is organized around linked personal profiles based on geographic, educational, or corporate networks.Member profiles can reveal a range of personal information, including favourite books, films, and music; e-mail and street addresses; phone numbers; education and employment histories; relationship status (including a link to the profile of the person with whom one is involved); political views; and religion.Once logged in, members spend time-according to Facebook, on average, 20 minutes a day-linking to friends' profiles, uploading and "tagging" (or labeling) friends in photos, creating and joining groups, posting events, website links, and videos, sending messages, and writing public notes for