IT for Change’s Director, Gurumurthy Kasinathan, was one of the speakers in a masterclass, as part of the Transnational Institute's online course about Digital Capitalism. Designed especially for activists, the course is an introduction to key aspects of digital capitalism.
He spoke about how digital platforms are emerging in different parts of the economy and society, in the latest phase of capitalism. With venture capital support, platforms aim to become monopolies and exploit both producers and consumers. Restrictions on taxation have reduced necessary investments in public services. Compromised public systems and services, unemployment, exploitation of workers — all of these are part of the phenomena of digital capitalism.
He also highlighted how platform co-operatives can provide an alternative to platform capitalism, as they enable democratic control of digital platforms. IT for Change explored this as part of 'Roots of Resilience', an international conference about platform coops that we organized in November 2023.
Watch the session here.