The Political Economy of the Internet: Social Networking Sites and a Reply to Fuchs.

The privatization of the Internet meant not simply a passage from a state-logic organization to an economic one but something more complex. The year 1995 marked a disruption when the National Science Foundation (NSF), the public agency that controlled and exploited the network, transferred its regulatory responsibilities to the private sector. Despite the system’s provision of free access to information, the Internet’s entire economic logic was modified when advertising became the standard norm. The objective of this article is to summarize the history of the Internet and the points that are important to understanding its actual political and economic logic via an emphasis on social networking sites. Our argument also involves a Marxist critique of a theoretical element that Fuchs has contributed to this discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]