The Political Economy of Privacy on Facebook

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of the political economy of privacy and surveillance on Facebook. The concepts of socialist privacy and socialist internet privacy are advanced here. Capital accumulation on Facebook is based on the commodification of users and their data. One can in this context speak, based on Dallas Smythe, of the exploitation of the internet prosumer commodity. Aspects of a socialist internet privacy strategy are outlined and it is shown how they can be applied to social networking sites.