The Left Needs To Stop Idolizing The GDPR

Digital policy is not exactly home turf for the European left. Other issues like social justice and antifascism align much more naturally with its political tradition. When it comes to the digital transformation however the position of the left is less focused. Some call out the exploitation of workers who clean up the training data for large language models (branded as “artificial intelligence” by those who profit from it). Others focus on digital violence against marginalized groups or deal with the spreading of right-wing ideology via social media. All these issues are crucial. Their discussion, however, is rarely embedded into a coherent understanding of the role of data processing within the current social and economic order. These issues are at risk of being discussed as isolated symptoms without connection to their systemic causes.