​The Illusion of the Digital Contract: When Web2 Transforms the Internaut into a Product, a Target, and a Suspect

​By Ousmane DIAKITE

Africa55Durable

​The verdict is in, and it is absolute: the original covenant of Web2 is broken. For two decades, tech giants—the infamous GAFA and their copycats—have thrived on a soothing lie: “If it’s free, you are the product.” Today, reality has taken a much more cynical turn. The internaut is no longer just a product whose data is siphoned subtly, if not insidiously; they have become the cash cow ordered to pay, and the suspect hunted down by disproportionate identity verifications.

​Facing this drift, the hour calls neither for utopian boycotts nor for sterile waiting for these platforms to self-regulate. The hour demands a scientific understanding of the mechanisms of this exploitation, the better to pave a third way: that of a pragmatic and uncompromising negotiation.

​1. Economic Double Jeopardy: From Monetization to Taxation

​The business model of tech platforms is undergoing a structural maturity crisis. Driven to saturation by regulations (such as GDPR) and the necessity to satisfy increasingly greedy shareholders, the giants of the Net are executing a 180-degree turn.

​We are witnessing the advent of "double jeopardy." On one side, surveillance capitalism continues to amass digital black gold by spying on our behaviors, clicks, and preferences. On the other, platforms like X (formerly Twitter) or Meta are introducing paywalls for services that were once universal. The user is trapped: they pay with their time, they pay with their privacy, and now, they must pull out their credit card just to exist digitally.

​2. The Algorithmic Paradox: The Selective War on Robots

​One of the most flagrant symptoms of these platforms' disconnection lies in their moderation management, which is tinged with profound managerial hypocrisy. Users find themselves increasingly accused of being "robots" or "bots," suffering arbitrary bans or visibility restrictions.

​Yet, a scientific and logical question arises: what is the issue, given that these platforms themselves manage human flows exclusively through artificial intelligence and robots?

​The answer is purely capitalistic. GAFA's robots are value-capturing tools designed to maximize addiction and profit. Conversely, third-party robots (data scraping) are perceived as parasites sucking up data without paying the tithe. In this war of machines, the human internaut is collateral damage. Treated with the brutality of a blind algorithm, they are managed by a digital bureaucracy that has banished empathy and human discernment from its interfaces.

​3. The KYC Trap: The Commercialization of Absolute Identity

​To address this paranoia surrounding bots, and under the guise of "security," social networks are massively deploying KYC (Know Your Customer) protocols. Drafted within terms of service of formidable legal subtlety, these contracts force users to surrender what is most precious to them: their sovereign identity (passports, ID cards) and their biometric data (facial scans).

​From a socio-scientific perspective, this is a point of no return. To send a message or maintain a network, the user agrees to entrust their legal security to private entities whose data security is regularly compromised. The risk of hacking, identity theft, and ultimately, the indirect resale or absolute profiling of individuals transforms KYC into a weapon for expropriating individual sovereignty.

​The Urgency of the Third Way: Toward a New Balance of Forces

​Faced with this grim assessment, the temptation of a clean break (boycott) or complaint (waiting for legislation) is an illusion. GAFA infrastructures have become global public utilities, indispensable for economic development—particularly for the African continent, where connectivity is a major lever for emancipation.

​The solution therefore does not lie in sabotage, but in negotiation. The internaut must cease to be a passive subject and become a contractual partner. Tech giants need our attention, our content creation, and our rapidly growing markets. It is on this terrain of shared value that we must now split the difference.

​Ousmane DIAKITE

For Africa55Durable: Thinking an equitable, sovereign, and people-respecting digital future.