Landlords of the internet: Big data and big real estate

Item Type Journal Article Author Daniel Greene URL https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127221124943 Volume 52 Issue 6 Pages 904-927 Publication Social Studies of Science ISSN 0306-3127 Date 2022-12-01 Extra Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd Journal Abbr Soc Stud Sci DOI 10.1177/03063127221124943 Accessed 2025-04-22 23:49:23 Library Catalog SAGE Journals Language EN Abstract Who owns the internet? It depends where you look. The physical assets at the core of the internet, the warehouses that store the cloud’s data and interlink global networks, are owned not by technology firms like Google and Facebook but by commercial real estate barons who compete with malls and property storage empires. Granted an empire by the US at the moment of the internet’s commercialization, these internet landlords shaped how the network of networks that we call the internet physically connects, and how personal and business data is stored and transmitted. Under their governance, internet exchanges, colocation facilities, and data centers take on a double life as financialized real estate assets that circle the globe even as their servers and cables are firmly rooted in place. The history of internet landlords forces a fundamental reconsideration of the business model at the base of the internet. This history makes clear that the internet was never an exogenous shock to capitalist social relations, but rather a touchstone example of an economic system increasingly ruled by asset owners like landlords. Short Title Landlords of the internet