[iDC] Ello--Alternative to Facebook

[Jonathan Beller]

Christian's points regarding proprietary relations in Ello are right on; however, significant as they are, they only constitute a first-order analysis. Foucault in "The Eye of Power" famously pointed out that if the inmates of the panoptic prison simply take over the guard tower without destroying the structure itself, the result will only be replication of the prison system since the power relations are inscribed in the prison architecture. This is certainly true of the technics of social media platforms as well. So ownership (co-operative, collective, public) and non-profiteering is one extremely significant dimension here, but the logistics of sociality wedded to technics developed through capital intensification are themselves also at issue. Does the platform inscribe the same modes of individuation and celebrity as Facebook/Twitter/Instagram? In other words, does it take as a given the metrics of valuation that monetization has instantiated at the micro-level? Many other questions about the interface and sociality, as well as about authorship, sharing, and the commons follow from this, but they are beyond the scope of this brief comment. My point is that we must ask not only about ownership but about the program -- Is Ello's program (in all senses of that word) anti-capitalist?

Ello as an LBGQTA site may have a leg up (if I may) on the anti-capitalist cultural logistics side since queer practices tend not to be precisely non-conforming ones. Can the practices of freedom embarked upon by the queer community queer Facebook and queer Marxism? Let's work on that!


Jonathan Beller
Professor
Humanities and Media Studies
Director, Graduate Program in Media Studies
Pratt Institute
200 Willoughby Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11205

https://www.pratt.edu/academics/liberal-arts-and-sciences/graduate-media-studies/

jbeller at pratt.edu
718-636-3573 (office fax)







On Sep 26, 2014, at 5:23 AM, Christian Fuchs wrote:

> Alternative to Facebook?
> 
> The important question is if Ello is a for-profit company or not and if not, if it attempts to become one or not. The important point is how the founders and those operating it relate to capitalism.
> 
> It says it does not commodify data for advertising purposes - good!
> 
> It however also says https://ello.co/wtf/post/privacy:
> "We may share your personal information with third parties under several circumstances, including [...] if we contract with a third party service provider to offer services for you — for example, with a credit card processing company if you decide to buy something through Ello. Ello does not have any affiliated companies right now. But if we do in the future, we may share information with them, too."
> https://ello.co/wtf/post/privacy
> 
> "offer services for you" can mean anything - the crucial thing is if Ello or the service-provider make monetary profit by providing this service or ever in the future intend to do so. This is not clarified.
> 
> Ello further says https://ello.co/wtf/post/about-ello:
> 
> "We occasionally offer special features to our users. If we create a special feature that you really like, you may choose to support Ello by paying a very small amount of money to add that feature to your Ello account.
> You never have to pay anything, and you can keep using Ello forever, for free. By choosing to buy a feature now and then for a very small amount of money you support our work and help us make Ello better and better."
> 
> It is unclear here if Ello if these features are offered in order to get donations that fund a non-profit organisation or if the intention is to accumulate capital.
> 
> 
> Being ad-free is not enough - the point is that you have to be non-capitalist in order to be an alternative to Facebook.
> 
> Ello says nowhere if it is a for-profit company, a hobby project of a bunch of artists, a co-operative, or whatever. It seems to conceal its legal status and that's a problem.
> 
> Ello says: "Ello is a Public Network" https://ello.co/wtf/post/privacy. You are only truly public if you are public service or commonly owned.
> 
> It is unclear what Ello is - and that it is not communicating its legal status and what its relationship to capitalism is, is troubling. A privacy policy and terms of use that do not rule out that a platform is or ever becomes capitalist are just as bad as Facebook's.
> 
> Best, Christian
> 
> 
> 
> 
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