A Critical Study Of "Digital Labor" From The Perspective Of Marxist Political Economy

As Marx said,"The hand mill produced a society headed by feudal lords,while the steam mill produced a society headed by industrial capitalists." The productive forces and relations of production have given birth to new social forms.If the industrial revolution ushered in the machine age,the information revolution of the 21st century opened the door of the digital age and brought human beings into the society led by digital capitalists.Since the beginning of the 21st century,mankind has started a new round of "industrial revolution",from which capitalism began to transition to digital capitalism.Today,no one can doubt that we are experiencing the fact that digital information technology has penetrated into all aspects of our society at an unprecedented speed and depth,and everything has been incorporated into the digital world.Digital capital is disintegrating and reconstructing human production and life style,greatly changing the labor market and prompting more and more labor force to turn to data information production.In the leap forward of digital technology,a new labor mode--"digital labor" is produced.As the product of The Times and technology of human practice,"digital labor" breaks the time and space restriction of capital multiplication and becomes the main labor form at present.However,the controversy about the concept of "digital labor" and the means of value production and exploitation hidden behind "digital labor" continues in the academic circle.There is no doubt that western liberal capitalist scholars question Marx’s view of labor theory of value,thus promoting the view of technology theory of value.However,the current domestic and foreign research on "digital labor" is still focused on the field of communication political economy.Facing controversies and doubts,only by returning to Marxist critical theory of political economy and considering and analyzing "digital labor" in the process of labor can we defend Marx’s labor theory of value.Based on Marxist political economy and starting from the background of "digital labor",this paper sorts out the evolution process of "digital labor" and clarifies its concept and form of expression.On this basis,it explores the labor production process of "digital labor" and explains the transformation from data products to digital commodities.After establishing that "digital labor" still belongs to the category of labor,we need to continue to discuss how to effectively control the use value of free data on Internet platforms and commercialize it.How is the surplus value of "digital Labour" generated? How is the capitalization process of data information implemented? To answer these questions,we need to capture the specific process in which data is used and circulated by capitalists and platforms to serve capital in the process of "digital labor" value production,and look into the commercialization patterns of capital in different places in the information field.Although "digital labor" is a new form of labor in the era of digital capitalism,it still does not change the nature of labor,the class relationship between capitalists and laborers has not been eliminated,exploitation still exists and "digital labor" breaks the boundary between work and leisure time,prolongs the production time of surplus value,exacerbates exploitation and brings greater inequality.The study of "digital labor" arises in western countries.In recent years,with the rapid development of digital economy in our country,it successively leads to the attention of the scholars in the fields of communication studies,economics,Marxist theory and so on,which has obtained certain research results.However,the development of practice is in urgent need of further theoretical research.At present,China has the world’s second largest digital economy,a group of Internet giants including Alibaba,Tencent,Baidu and Meituan,tens of thousands of active digital workers in different industries and platforms,and the largest number of Internet online users in the world.How to use data resources and tap data potential;How to guarantee fair employment and achieve full employment;How to govern data abuse and protect user privacy are unavoidable problems in the development of digital economy.To this,we should base on the basic theory of Marxism and master the development law and tendency of Digital Labor,and fully understand some enlightenments which it brings to the economic development of our country,so as to promote the healthy development of our digital economy.Fox’s revelation of the alienation and invisible exploitation of social media users,that is,Internet marketers and unpaid laborers,is worth thinking about for everyone: in the age of social media,how should we live a rational life in the "digital factory",how to get rid of the control of digital capital,prevent the separation of social existence,and give full play to the free and comprehensive creative potential of individuals.