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Between Political Commitment and Theoretical Rigour: Rethinking the “Digital Labour” Theory
Yihao Wu
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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2026.09.001
Peking University, Beijing, China
With the emergence of internet-centered social media, Christian Fuchs’s “digital labour” concept has further developed the “audience commodity” thesis within the political economy of communication. However, researchers mainly evaluate its political-economic merits and limitations, without examining why Fuchs so strongly opposes the “cognitive rent” approach and firmly upholds his problematic theory. On a subjective level, Fuchs gives up theoretical precision and scientific soundness in order to sustain a position of opposition to Western digital capitalism. On an objective level, the conflict over standpoint theory exposes an empiricist illusion: an incapacity to grasp scientifically the relationship between essence and appearance, as well as the notion of “matter”. Only by exploring this oppositional stance as a subjective motive and the empiricist illusion as an objective factor can we carry out a thorough critique of the digital labour theory and thus improve our comprehension of social reality in the age of digital capitalism.
Digital capitalism, audience commodity, Christian Fuchs, empiricism, digital labour
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