Who Is John Lanchester's Essay 'You Are The Product'

In John Lanchester’s article “You Are the Product,” he makes a claim that the true Facebook ‘customers’ are the advertisers who use the platform, rather than the platform’s users. In recent years, Facebook has received a lot of blowback for circulating false advertisements, political propaganda, and smear tactics across the website. Ever since the 2016 American presidential election, there have been a number of reports that have linked Facebook to Russian propagandists, and many have accused the platform of directly interfering with the outcome of the election. While many people were rightfully outraged, Lanchester points out that this revelation should not be shocking because, as he puts it, “Facebook has no financial interest in telling the

Because Facebook exploits the digital labor of its users, as well as commodifying their personal information for its own capital gain, Facebook is able to essentially create a product out of its users. Lanchester’s critical beliefs about social media are shared by Fuchs, and many of the themes in Lanchester’s article are reflected in Fuchs’ book. Although he does not always use the same terms as Fuchs, the rejection of ideas central to web 2.0 can be found throughout Lanchester’s article. The mass circulation of false information, as well as the blatant and frequent stealing of content online, are both in direct opposition to some of the core ideas presented by web 2.0. The role of surveillance within Facebook’s business model is also a central theme of Lanchester’s article, as he argues that surveillance is the primary reason Facebook is as wealthy as it is. Using ideas presented by Fuchs, it becomes evident that social media platforms such as Facebook operate within a surveillance-industrial complex, and are readily exploiting the digital labor of their users for profit. Lanchester’s argument is both well-grounded and well backed up by Fuchs, and is ultimately able to effectively convey his point about social