Click farm platforms

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.16.2.0007
• Published date: 17 October 2022
• Date: 17 October 2022
• Pages: 7-20
• Author: Rafael Grohmann,Maria Clara Aquino,Alison Rodrigues,Évilin Matos,Caroline Govari,Adriana Amaral
• Subject Matter: Click farm,platform labour,Latin America,Brazil,Colombia

Work organisation, labour & globalisation Volume 16, Number 2, 2022 7

Click farm platforms

An updating of informal work in

Brazil and Colombia

Rafael Grohmann, Maria Clara Aquino, Alison Rodrigues,

Évilin Matos, Caroline Govari and Adriana Amaral

Rafael Grohmann is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies

at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Maria Clara Aquino is an Associate Professor in

Communication, at Unisinos University, Brazil.

Alison Rodrigues is a PhD Candidate in Communication,

at Unisinos University, Brazil.

Évilin Matos is an MsC Researcher, at Unisinos University, Brazil.

Caroline Govari is a PhD Researcher, at Unisinos University,

Brazil.

Adriana Amaral is an Associate Professor in

Communication, at Unisinos University, Brazil.

ABSTRACT

The article analyses work on click farm platforms in Brazil and Colombia. It argues

that work on these platforms updates and renews the historical informality of

work in Latin America. Drawing on click farm ethnography, worker interviews and

digital ethnography on WhatsApp and Facebook groups and Youtube channels,

the research highlights: rst, the cultural marks of Brazil and Colombia in the

interactions between workers, typical of Latin American digital culture; second,

the role of Youtubers as skill makers, responsible for the initiation of workers into

click farm platforms and the circulation of neoliberal and entrepreneurial ideology;

third, practices and discourses relating to reselling accounts, photos and bots

as a new version of the historical resale markets in the region; and fourth, the

boundaries between informality and illegality at work on click farm platforms. The

article argues that, in addition to informal work that preceded and is connected to

work on click farms, informality gains new dimensions with work on click farms,

with the platformisation of labour representing an articulation between the old

informality and new market practices and infrastructures.

KEY WORDS

Click farm, platform labour, Latin America, Brazil, Colombia

DOI:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.16.2.0007