I wish that Data Grab was required reading when I was a graduate student working in the field of AI. Perspectives like these are crucial if we are to break the colonial paradigm that pervades computing disciplinesI wish that Data Grab was required reading when I was a graduate student working in the field of AI. Perspectives like these are crucial if we are to break the colonial paradigm that pervades computing disciplinesA blistering, vital exposure of the predatory world of data colonialism. In this vivid and passionately written book, Mejias and Couldry urge us to wake up to the invasive and extractive world of today’s Big TechRemarkable... Data Grab helps us understand that
the historical and ongoing relations of power have extended to the realm of data, a new raw material of digital capitalism.
Mejias and Couldry place us on a path to recognise, resist, and challenge these forces
As in their previous work, Mejias and Couldry
show how important it is to take the perspective of the colonized, not the colonizer, in explaining how the digital world is governed. Data Grab offers important insights into how we should analyse power and counter-power in terms of data control. I particularly recommend this book for providing examples of local and vocal initiatives across various continents.
A true eye-openerIn this
essential and original work, Mejias and Couldry lay out a
powerful and persuasive analysis of the logical continuity between modern colonialism and the extraction of data by Big Tech and its platforms.
Their call to resist data colonialism could not be more urgent or more timelyUlises A. Mejias (Author)
Professor Ulises A. Mejias (Mexican American) is a critical media theorist, recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship, and a Fulbright Specialist from 2021 to 2025.
Nick Couldry (Author)
Professor Nick Couldry (British) is a sociologist of media and culture at the London School of Economics and a Faculty Associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.