"With millions of people locked down at home, working and shopping online, glued to screens and cloud computing, these companies became omnipresent and all-powerful. In the United States, between 2020 and 2022, there was a 52% increase in screen time in the under-18 age group. Armed with colossal amounts of personal data, giants like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Alibaba, or Amazon achieved what was once unthinkable: knowing their users better than the users know themselves."
"No longer content with just spotting behavioral patterns, they began to anticipate, exploit, and shape them trapping millions in a relentless cycle of digital dependence: the circuit of cloud rent. Varoufakis concluded that something fundamental had changed: capitalism, as we had known it for more than two centuries, was dead. In its place arose technofeudalism, a new order controlled by technolords a handful of ultra-wealthy players who extract rents from users and subordinate the old capitalists."
Pandemic lockdowns accelerated digital adoption, with millions working, shopping, and schooling online and dramatically increasing screen time among youth. Big Tech firms accumulated vast personal data, enabling them to know users better than users know themselves. These firms moved beyond pattern recognition to anticipating, exploiting, and shaping behavior, creating widespread digital dependence termed the circuit of cloud rent. A conclusion emerged that traditional capitalism has been supplanted by technofeudalism: a new system dominated by a handful of ultra-wealthy technolords who extract rents from users and subordinate older capital owners. Growing Big Tech power demands citizen and government confrontation to prevent algorithmic rule.
Read at english.elpais.com
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