Notes on two contemporary myths: free internet and user activity on digital social networking sites

Abstract

Abstract The proposal presented here opens up the opportunity to discuss what attentive Barthesian eyes can tell us about this early twenty-first century. We discuss the following research question: If actors pay nothing to be on digital social networking sites, and if they are supposed to shape the digital environment, how do companies profit if such an assumed logic remains for them a subordinate place? The answer could not be more Barthesian. The culture of platforms, transformed into nature, mythifies digital life, pointing to the success of the capitalist Doxa: the internet is free and the users are the agents of the network, while in reality, platforms earn millions, and users are manipulated by dishonest product sales strategies and by the spread of fake news.