Cloud Empires

Publication date: 13 September 2022 by MIT Press

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This is the question at the heart of Vili Lehdonvirta’s new book, Cloud Empires. The cover and title both drew me to this book. I am not well-versed in economics or sociology, but Lehdonvirta’s subject is something that affects us all—the digital markets or platforms that possess a firm hold on online markets. As such, this book is not about the tech giants in a broad sense, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it people who are looking for a more general overview of Big Tech. And yet I am pretty sure nearly everyone these days has bought something online, so it is still relevant to our daily lives. This is an important book and although we’ve been taking in the ominous portents of Big Tech’s reach for years now, we have not yet seen a narrative that tackles digital platforms and commerce for a broader audience. Lehdonvirta’s clear and well-organized prose makes this daunting subject accessible and clear, even if you lack an economics or sociology background.

The narrative is structured chronologically, with the earlier chapters corresponding to the lawless and chaotic days of the early internet. Since there was an abundance of anonymity and not much in the way of regulatory or institutional frameworks, Lehdonvirta explains how digital commerce had yet to really take off—at least until companies like eBay and Amazon came into the picture. Reading about the early days of Usenet and the visions of various tech founders was interesting and established one of the running themes of digital commerce—its primary intention was always to resist the undue influence of outsiders, i.e., government regulation, in favor of giving its users more control and liberty. Of course, this is far from how it actually played out. Lehdonvirta does well to emphasize that this occurred as a byproduct of human attitudes and limitations—not merely because tech founders were actively malicious.

One of the more interesting chapters was on Satoshi Nakamota, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. I have to say, I quite appreciated this contextual information, and Lehdonvirta’s exposition on Bitcoin has helped me to understand how it works moreso than any other thing I’ve read on Bitcoin. Lehdonvirta also displays a deft skill with European history—he makes several comparisons to medieval economy but also culture generally throughout the book; for instance, he compares Satoshi Nakamoto to Solon after the Athenian peasant revolt, and honestly, as unexpected as that was, he makes a fair point. The historical comparisons did feel overdone at times, but I still found it impressive how broad the author’s range of historical knowledge was. The story of Bitcoin points out an inherent flaw in the nature of the internet—we may be anonymous and equal behind these screens, but even when you have an algorithm, you still need a human (along with all of his or her accompanying biases and flaws) to push the buttons and write the code. The promise of true objectivity and neutrality is far from being realized.

Another great aspect of the book are the parts that touch on labor rights and the digital workers’ movements—for instance, the chapters on the development of Upwork (which I had never heard of until now, somehow) and Kristy Milland’s efforts to seek better treatment for Amazon’s Mechanical Turk laborers. There is a lot of opportunity, particularly in the digital freelancing world, but given its novel nature and unprecedented economic flourishing, digital labor is also ripe for abuse. This book helps to illustrate why this is still a major issue arising from platform giants and what may be done to alleviate these concerns.

The second half of the subtitle is ‘How We Can Regain Control’. On this front, the reader may be slightly disappointed. Since much of the book covers various platforms and their origins or development, the last section of the book, the Conclusion, is where Lehdonvirta begins discussing possible solutions in earnest. However, to his credit, he critically discusses and analyzes various theories and strategies proposed by people such as Lina M. Khan, the newly appointed Director of the Federal Trade Commission. In that sense, he does at least provide some frameworks that the reader can consider for how we may move forward from the current state of things. This book would be especially useful in that regard for those in tech policy. However, he emphasizes that this is something out of the reach of the individual user; we need movements and governments to step in and lend a guiding hand. On this front, I am admittedly skeptical, especially since it seems like most of the Boomer Generation currently occupying seats in the U.S. legislature are not going anywhere any time soon. As long as we have senators who are ignorant of simple things such as how Facebook makes inconceivable amounts of money in revenue or how Amazon tracks users across much of the modern web, I am not sure that the government can adequately respond to these issues. Additionally, this is a minor point, but I wish the author had better established the definitions of ‘digital platforms’ early on in the book; the cover features Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Google, but really only one of these gets a decent amount of discussion, and so I would have appreciated a more expanded overview of these other platforms (as well as interesting cases like Facebook Marketplace).

I also noticed a few typographical or minor grammatical errors. For instance, at one point, ‘Orson Scott Card’ is referred to as ‘Scott Orson Card’. I can only hope these were fixed for the final print version.

All the same, Lehdonvirta’s main message of this book is to convince the reader that digital platforms have taken on quasi-state roles, developing institutional frameworks that occupy both economic and political roles. This applies not only to digital commerce but indeed to most aspects of the internet. Transparency and accountability are seriously lacking. But, as Lehdonvirta points out, this was also the case in the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Things can and still may begin to change towards a more democratizing trend, and for the sake of internet users everywhere I sincerely hope that they do.

After all, just read the latest headlines and ask yourself if this isn’t a dystopia: Amazon to buy primary care provider One Medical for $3.9B

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and MIT Press for providing an advanced reader copy of this book. This review reflects only my honest thoughts.