Platform is one of many metaphors in our Internet lives. While we like to imagine a flat, continuous surface that is open to all, we know that internet platforms are indeed vertical, hierarchically organised infrastructures that have shaped the way in which the (digital) world has been and continues to be divided, distributed, and separated. Boris Groys frames this using Marx’s description of a situation of collective use and private property: ‘Everybody uses these Internet platforms, but they belong to only a few companies. There is a tension between the interests of the users and the interests of the companies, but this tension is hidden and not thematised, because people believe that the Internet is a means of communication.’

On the Internet, the platform is not a platform, but a metaphor giving symbolic power, a symbolic flatness, to data infrastructures stretching deep and far. If we induced other, counter, or just more precise images into the (online) discourse, say the image of an oil platform, we could have a deeper reach of imagination. At least we would understand what we did to have an Instagram feed full of targeted ads for LiquiMoly, Weleda Cellulite Body Oil, and Grease Splatter Screen for Frying Pan 13" - Stops 99% of Hot Oil Splash.