从“用户”到“信息消费者”——数字劳动视野下的社交平台用户权益保障

From“User”to“Information Consumer”—Rights Protection of Social Platform Users from the Perspective of Digital Labor

在“免费使用”的表象下,社交平台长期以来被认为是一个中立、平等的公共空间,而用户在法律上也始终未能像一般付费平台那样被确认“消费者”的身份。然而,这种中立和免费只是一种假象,用户在获得平台服务时支付的“对价”被普遍性地忽略了。一方面是不断扩张的平台权力,另一方面是不被认可的消费者身份,这使得用户的知情权、公平交易权等难以获得保障,出现了权利义务上的失衡。从数字劳动的视角来看,平台与用户之间的经济交换是客观存在的,有必要及时明确社交平台用户的“信息消费者”地位,并建立针对性的消费者权益保护机制,从而缓和当下用户与社交平台在权利义务上的紧张关系。

Under the appearance of“free use”,social platforms have been regarded as a neutral and equal public space,and users have never been recognized as“consumers”like other paid platforms.However,this is just an illusion,and the“consideration”that users pay when using platform services is generally ignored.There is an imbalance in rights and obligations given the unrecognized consumer identity on one hand and the increasing expansion of platform power on the other hand,which makes it difficult to guarantee the right to know and the right of fair trade.From the perspective of digital labor,economic exchanges between platforms and users exist objectively.It is necessary to clarify the status of social platform users as“information consumers”and establish a targeted consumer rights protection mechanism to ease the tension between users and social platforms in terms of rights and obligations.