Mike Pepi: Are Platforms Ruining the Internet? | #48

Once upon a time, the Internet was heralded as a great open space, the utopian dream of free information flow. Obviously those ideas were misguided (at best); the Internet we experience today is a far cry from what Silicon Valley promised us. What went wrong?

Today’s guest argues that it's because we’ve boxed ourselves—or maybe more accurately, been boxed into—platforms.

The Internet as we understand it is dominated by platforms; in large part they define the logic of digital life. So what can we do about it? Listen on...

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Mike Pepi is a writer and critic exploring the intersection of technology, culture, and politics. His work has appeared in e-flux, Frieze, Art in America, Spike and other publications, where he interrogates the ideologies behind digital tools and cultural production. He is the author of Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia (Melville House, 2025).

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