When we talk about the digital economy, we refer to the increasing reorganization of market exchange by platforms. That begs the question – what are platforms? A platform is the new market force, based on what may be called ‘data value chains’. The 21st century economy is predicated on the “invisible hand”, to adapt from Adam Smith’s idea, the unobservable market mechanism of the ‘platform’ that orchestrates market exchange.

To bring feminist perspectives into this equation, we need to look closely at what is valued and how value is created. As things stand today, the platform economy – dominated as it is by a few firms – is extractivist, exploitative, and expedient. It is based on an unsustainable model with scant regard for natural resources; built on the back of a global division of labor that bears the marks of race, class, gender, and geography. And it propels itself on a free market arrogance that knows no boundaries, geographic and otherwise, operating as it does with impunity – tax evasion, price manipulation, wage theft, political arm-twisting, and more. Key to the value proposition of platform firms is the intangible asset of data, data that is stolen and hoarded from people and nations.