Environment

The Environmental Costs of Surveillance Capitalism: A Case Study of Social Media Platforms

Nils Bonfils, Christoph Becker

Featured June 3, 2026

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AI-generated analysis — This is SciGrove's AI interpretation of the paper, not peer-reviewed content. Always refer to the original paper.

Simply

Big social media companies like X use way more internet data than needed, creating extra carbon pollution, because they constantly track users and push engaging content for profit, unlike simpler, non-commercial platforms.

In depth

The paper introduces a conceptual framework to quantify the environmental impact of surveillance capitalism by comparing corporate social media (CSM) platforms with non-commercial alternatives. It defines corporate overhead and user tracking overhead as metrics for excess network traffic, establishing a lower bound for carbon emissions attributable to profit-driven activities that do not enhance user experience.

Key Takeaways

1
A conceptual framework is proposed to map surveillance capitalism processes to their material environmental impacts.
2
The paper quantifies corporate overhead and user tracking overhead in network traffic by comparing X (formerly Twitter) and Mastodon.
3
The study establishes a lower bound for carbon emissions attributable to surveillance capitalism activities on corporate social media platforms.

Conceptual Flow

HIGH LEVEL

Comparing Platform Resource Use

To see how much extra data big companies use, the authors compare a commercial social media app with a simple, non-profit one doing the same job.

Commercial App Data

Non-Profit App Data

Compare Usage

Extra Data Used

Identifying Extra Carbon Footprint

The comparison reveals a lot of extra data traffic from the commercial app, which translates into a measurable amount of extra carbon pollution.

Extra Data Used

Calculate Pollution

Extra Carbon Emissions