Priyageetha Dia

This new body of work continues her current research around Southeast Asian plantation histories, in particular rubber plantations and makes significant parallels between data extractivism and the colonial plantation system, though distinct phenomena arising from different eras and contexts, share, particularly in the Southeast Asian context.

In Southeast Asia, the colonial plantation system has historical roots. Where plantation corporatism turned British Malaya (now Singapore and Malaysia) into one of Britain’s most profitable colonies and the world’s largest rubber exporter in the 19th Century, European colonial powers, particularly the British in Malaysia and the Dutch in Indonesia, established vast plantation economies by exploiting local natural resources, primarily rubber and spices. These colonial powers imposed extractive economic structures, reconfiguring landscapes and labour forces to benefit distant capitalist economies. The extracted value largely bypassed the local areas and the people from whom it was derived.

In the contemporary era of digital capitalism, data extractivism draws unsettling parallels with this history. Just as land and labour were exploited for commodity production, the activities, choices, and behaviours of internet users are now being mined and commodified. A thriving digital economy, centred on data, has emerged, with tech companies extracting, processing, and selling vast amounts of user-generated data.

This extractive data process mirrors the power dynamics of the plantation system. Users, who are analogous to colonised labour, provide raw data through their digital activities, similar to how colonial labour provided raw labour and resources. However, the value derived from this raw data, akin to the profits from the plantation economy, disproportionately benefits tech corporations that are predominantly headquartered in the Global North.

Under colonialism, Southeast Asian economies became dependent on, and peripheral to, the colonial powers. Today, the Southeast Asian digital ecosystem is dominated by large tech corporations, which foster dependency and perpetuate an economic and digital divide. Southeast Asia, with its growing internet user base, is an attractive market, but it benefits little from its rich data resources, a fact that underscores the neo-colonial undertones of data extractivism.

While the forms of exploitation differ, both the colonial plantation system and data extractivism revolve around similar principles: the extraction of resources, power imbalances, dependency, and opacity. As the digital age advances, addressing these exploitative practices becomes paramount to avoid replicating colonial injustices in new forms.