Andrea Gandini
Periscopio – Il Quotidiano
January 5th, 2026
The text presents Maurizio Ferraris’s idea of digital communism, based on the recognition that data generated through everyday consumption and online activities have become a new form of capital. Unlike traditional capital, this “documedial capital” is produced not primarily through labour but through the collective behaviour of users, while its economic value is currently captured mainly by large American technology companies or authoritarian states such as China.
Ferraris proposes that Europe develop alternative, European digital platforms that allow citizens to voluntarily share their data while preserving privacy and redistributing the resulting economic value, particularly toward people in need. This model would replace the principle of distribution according to “merit” with distribution according to need, promoting greater equality.
The proposal is presented as a third path between US-style liberal capitalism and Chinese state control, using data portability and European technological sovereignty as foundations. Digital communism would therefore seek to transform citizens from passive data producers into collective owners of the new means of digital production, creating a more equitable and socially oriented digital economy.
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