Are we internet serfs collecting information and posting on platforms owned by Billionaires?

In many respects, yes: most people function as “digital serfs,” doing unpaid informational and creative labour on platforms owned and governed by a very small, ultra-wealthy class.web-strategist+1​

The digital serfdom idea

Scholars and critics use terms like “digital serfdom,” “data feudalism,” and “technofeudalism” to describe how users become dependent on a few dominant platforms that set the rules unilaterally. Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, for example, argues that platforms like Facebook, Amazon and Google operate as “cloud fiefs,” where users are “cloud serfs” whose activity continually enriches the platform owners.wired+5​

In classic feudalism, serfs owed labour and loyalty to a lord in exchange for land and protection; in the digital variant, people hand over data, content and attention in exchange for access to communication, markets and cloud services.thebeautifultruth+2​

How platforms extract value

On most large platforms, users do the following, all without direct pay: create content, generate behavioural data, label information (likes, ratings), moderate each other’s behaviour, and provide social graphs. Platforms then monetize this “free labour” via targeted advertising, data brokerage, and pay-to-play visibility systems that largely benefit advertisers and investors, not the people who produced the underlying value.datahorizzonresearch+3​

The data monetization market itself is now worth several billions of dollars annually and is projected to grow several-fold over the next decade, reflecting how central this extraction model has become to the contemporary economy.snsinsider+2​

Who owns the fiefdoms

Ownership and control are extremely concentrated: a handful of tech giants and their major shareholders effectively govern huge parts of the digital public sphere. Analysts describe this as a form of “techno-feudalism,” where these firms hold monopolistic or oligopolistic power, set opaque terms of service, and can unilaterally change algorithms that determine who is seen, heard, or economically rewarded.sandersinstitute+4​

This concentration of cloud infrastructure, data, and AI capability in a few corporate hands gives those owners disproportionate influence over markets, politics, and even culture, far beyond what traditional media moguls held.promarket+2​

Where the analogy breaks (and what leverage remains)

The serf analogy is not perfect: unlike medieval peasants, users can in principle exit, use open protocols, self-host, or join cooperative / public platforms, though network effects and economic dependence make this difficult in practice. There is also an emerging push for data protection, interoperability, and platform regulation that aims to curb surveillance capitalism and rebalance power, though its effectiveness is uneven so far.prism.sustainability-directory+3​

So the “internet serf” framing captures something real about power and extraction, but it is also a political diagnosis: it highlights that this arrangement is contingent and contestable, not a law of nature.rsisinternational+1​

1. https://web-strategist.com/blog/2019/09/14/the-rise-of-digital-feudalism-chances-are-youre-a-serf/
2. https://www.wired.com/story/yanis-varoufakis-technofeudalism-interview/
3. https://thelivinglib.org/digital-serfdom/
4. https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/co/2025/03/10896929/24uGFOCXU2s
5. https://sandersinstitute.org/technofeudalism-explained-with-yanis-varoufakis
6. https://prism.sustainability-directory.com/area/digital-serfdom/resource/3/
7. https://madrascourier.com/opinion/the-rising-tide-of-techno-feudalism/
8. https://thebeautifultruth.org/the-basics/what-is-technofeudalism/
9. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-05/what-is-technofeudalism-and-are-we-living-under-it/103062936
10. https://datahorizzonresearch.com/data-monetization-platform-market-45509
11. https://www.promarket.org/2019/02/22/road-to-digital-serfdom-surveillance-capitalism-visible-hand/
12. https://www.snsinsider.com/reports/data-monetization-market-2753
13. https://www.kbvresearch.com/press-release/data-monetization-market/
14. https://mediacat.uk/challenging-techno-feudalisms-role-in-social-unrest/
15. https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/articles/techno-feudalism-and-the-new-global-power-struggle-echoes-of-a-digital-cold-war/
16. https://www.fairobserver.com/business/technology/the-new-road-to-serfdom/
17. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/digital-oligopoly-how-big-tech-monetizes-data-labor-andre-qq2re
18. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/lately/article-how-we-became-digital-serfs/
19. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/10/01/2956234/0/en/Data-Monetization-Market-to-Reach-USD-17-33-Billion-by-2032-Growing-Demand-for-Data-Driven-Decision-Making-Fuels-Market-Expansion-Research-By-SNS-Insider.html
20. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/horizon/outlook/data-monetization-market-size/global