The commodification of information where data and content are treated as commodities, serves a rapidly growing attention economy. Narrow incentives focused on profit maximization and audience engagement over the truth or societal benefit fuels disinformation campaigns and the spread of misinformation.
Similar to extractive practices in other domains, the media and information ecosystem extracts value from public attention and personal data without adequately considering the long-term consequences on public discourse and democracy. Prioritizing immediate gains from advertising and data monetization over the integrity and sustainability of the information landscape.
The information ecosystem is optimized for the goals and priorities of platform owners and advertisers, focusing on user engagement and time spent on platforms. This optimization often comes at the cost of information quality and veracity, as sensationalist and divisive content is promoted to keep users engaged, further fueling the disinformation crisis.
The centralized control of information channels by a few major platforms exacerbates the spread of disinformation. These entities have the unilateral power to determine algorithms and editorial policies that can either mitigate or amplify false narratives, often based on commercial rather than ethical considerations.
There is a significant imbalance between the benefits garnered by platform companies and the level of accountability they uphold. For example, major social media companies deflect responsibility for the content shared on their platforms by invoking freedom of speech, and claim that actually, users themselves 'own' the data, despite them not having any meaningful control or share of financial gain. They also often cite the nature of algorithms as a reason for their inability to control the spread of hate speech and misinformation. This highlights a discrepancy between the immense benefits these companies derive from data accumulation and their exercise of duty of care, further exacerbating issues of privacy invasion and the proliferation of harmful content.
