Because data reinterprets the traces of the everyday world, large-scale data processing recalibrates social knowledge, with the consequences depending on the type of market society under analysis. In liberal market societies, the new data infrastructure involves for the first time market institutions in producing basic social knowledge. But in state-led market societies, such as China, the state acquires a remarkable new tool to direct the production of social knowledge in its own interests.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 89