The Hidden History of the Like Button: From Decentralized Data to Semantic Enclosure

Abstract

Artificial intelligence relies on the use of semantic technologies to represent the shared world of humanity. The story of how this came to be is exemplified by the use of Semantic Web standards by the Facebook “Like” button. In the case of the “Like” button, a decentralized and open Semantic Web was used to fuel the accumulation of personal data for advertising throughout the entire Web. The advent of the “Like button” was shortly followed by Google’s creation of the Google Knowledge Graph, a private corporate version of the Semantic Web. In fact, every major company in Silicon Valley soon created its own knowledge graph. The Semantic Web was transformed from a democratic project for standardized open knowledge to a project of control, collapsing semantics and erasing the difference between the object qua object and the object as represented in a knowledge graph.