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Environment

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

Nils Bonfils, Christoph Becker

Featured June 3, 2026

Original Paper

AI-generated analysis — This is SciGrove's AI interpretation of the paper, not peer-reviewed content.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
1
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
2
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

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