Google "evil"? 'Tis a "sorcerer of capitalism!" says Swedish prof!

Christian Fuchs is a professor in media and communications studies at Uppsala University in Sweden. In a recent paper, he concludes that Google is, has been, and always will be evil:

“…Google permanently surveils the online behaviour of the users of Google services and thereby economically exploits them. In Google’s moral universe, prosumer exploitation does not seem to be evil, but rather a moral virtue. Google thinks that advertising is evil when it displays irrelevant information, when it is flashy and if it is not recognizable as such. It ignores that the problem is that for organizing and targeting advertising, Google engages in the surveillance and exploitation of users and the commodification of personal data and usage behaviour data. Advertising is furthermore a mechanism that advances the monopolization of business, the manipulation of needs and the commercialization and commodification of culture and life. Advertising and exploitation are always “evil”, therefore Google is just like all capitalist advertising companies “evil”. In capitalism, evil is not a moral misconduct of individuals, who are blinded and could also act in more positive ways, exploitation is rather a structural and necessary feature of capital accumulation, which makes evil a generic feature of all forms of capitalism and of all capitalist organizations.

…Google is a sorcerer of capitalism”

[Read the whole paper]

 

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