Abstract:

The labor of platform content production exhibits certain typical "new quality" characteristics. Workers need to master technologies and creativity, and use devices such as computers to create virtual information products. In this production model, content producers assume the triple identities of boss, supervisor, and worker. Although there is no traditional employment relationship, they are closely linked to the interests of the platform. Research indicates that the freedom" of platform content producers is actually the "freedom" of capital. On the one hand, the platform mitigates labor-capital conflicts by expanding the number of content producers to create a labor reserve army and transferring the performance appraisal power, and differentiates and divides platform content producers. On the other hand, due to the overlap of their multiple identities, content producers achieve the endowment of subjective significance, internalizing the logic of platform capital accumulation and expansion as their own creative drive.Ultimately, it presents the scene of the platform, as a dependent entity, being “dependent". Analyzing the increasingly concealed yet effective control of platform capital over content creators is crucial to resist the replacement of human needs by capital logic, harness the institutional strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and recalibrate the relationship between creators and capital. 

Key words:

platform content production, capital logic, labor control, manufacturing consent