In a recent interview, Geert Lovink called the internet perhaps the mistake of his generation. According to him, the idea that people can control it is naive. ‘Platform Brutality’ is the eighth book in Lovink’s series about the internet and forms a trinity with ‘Sad By Design’ (2019) and ‘Stuck On The Platform’ (2022), which explore the current state of the internet, where platforms call the shots.
A word of warning: ‘Platform Brutality’ is a downright depressing book. Where Lovink always saw a light at the end of the tunnel in previous publications, now only a faint glimmer shines somewhere in the distance. Stylistically, this is one of Lovink’s best books, perhaps his best. The short chapters are written with a certain pace and a touch of irony that keeps you captivated. A bit like social media: the short, tasty tidbits you see leave you wanting more, and before you know it, Lovink has you sucked into his tale of disaster.
The thirteen chapters touch on just as many relevant topics within the theme of platforms. The central theme is the loss or illusion of control. It no longer exists because of how platforms function. Lovink has previously emphasized that the word “social” in social media is a lost cause. Platforms fragment, isolate, and make us lonely. They drown us in information that has become meaningless. Lovink draws a parallel between the concept of ‘enshittification’ and Mark Fisher’s ‘boring dystopia’: even the darkest future scenario unfolds in a dull and predictable way.
Lovink’s strength compared to many other media critics remains his ironic distance. His concept of copium is a prime example of this. According to Lovink, we shut ourselves off from our fears by shutting down our brains and entering an apathetic state. In doing so, he doesn’t condemn this behavior; rather, he provides it with context. In his recent book, ‘Hungry Ghosts In The Machine’, Mike Watson uses the metaphor of drugs to describe a similar way of dealing with platform reality: one of repetition and dependency. In Lovink’s work, the platform user retains a certain sense of self-ownership.
Lovink describes how, in their early days, platforms enticed users to stay and share data. That strategy no longer works: everyone now knows that platforms have bad intentions. Now they use violence and isolation as tools.
How can we escape this? Lovink reveals himself to be a dancer between two apparent opposites: embracing the internet and restructuring it from the bottom up. In the final chapter, he admits that the list of possible actions in his previous book, ‘Stuck On The Platform’, still stands. Yet, he also reveals himself to be more activist than ever. For example, he concludes somewhere, “Go out into the world and fuck it up beautifully”, and at the beginning of his chapter about dreaming of another world, he quotes Tupac: “Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.”
It’s time for action.
‘Platform Brutality: Closing Down Internet Toxicity’ (2025) by Geert Lovink is published by Valiz.