Power and Personal Property Law in the Age of Informational Capitalism

Abstract

Platform entities are wresting control and power from populations of users by asserting property rights in the means of production of informational capitalism. The platform entities maintain strict control over (or property in) these means of production through their ability to manipulate an array of private laws such as contract and property laws. This wresting of power from the user to the platform entity has happened largely out of the purview and consciousness of most users. Studying power exposes the mechanisms by which platform entities have achieved their power and the damage that outsized power can cause. This paper takes a novel approach to analyzing this type of power through what Steven Lukes referred to as the third dimension of power. It examines some of the ways that platform entities have been able to accrue enormous social power by manipulating their technologies, their users, and the law in almost imperceptible ways through control and normalization. It investigates the role of the law, and particularly property law in formalizing and authorizing the transfer of property and power to the platform entities that has created vast inequality between platform entities and their users.