Data is not Labor: A reply to Kim and Vincent

Abstract

Abstract In a recent article in this journal, Kim and Vincent (2026) argue that the everyday interactions of ordinary users with digital platforms like Facebook, Google, and Amazon involve data-producing labor . I argue that Kim and Vincent’s view is either independently implausible or redundant by their own lights. Whatever the injustices of everyday user interactions with these platforms—and they are many—they do not involve the exploitation of their data-generating labor.