Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
All online platforms are ideological platforms. This statement might make sense to an increasing number of people today. However, until a few years ago, most online platforms aligned with dominant ideas about how society should function to such an extent that their ideological dimension often went unnoticed. For instance, the fact that LinkedIn places greater value on work anniversaries and job promotions than on other life events demonstrates that the platform embraces and reproduces neoliberal beliefs. LinkedIn's decision to focus on these types of events will appear entirely commonsensical — and therefore non-ideological — to most people, because most people understand society from within the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism, and therefore believe valuing individualism, job titles and careers is natural.
However, recent developments — including Elon Musk’s acquisition and transformation of X — have made the ideological nature and functioning of platforms more visible. In this talk, Ico Maly engages with the notion of ideological platforms and metapolitical platforms, which are platforms that are constructed to change what society accepts to be 'normal'. According to Maly, the increasing impact of online platforms asks academics to adopt critical digital discourse analysis as an approach. This approach would allow academic research to more fully comprehend and uncover the ideologies that permeate the online platforms that increasingly shape democratic societies and people's daily lives.
All online platforms are ideological platforms. This statement might make sense to an increasing number of people today. However, until a few years ago, most online platforms aligned with dominant ideas about how society should function to such an extent that their ideological dimension often went unnoticed. For instance, the fact that LinkedIn places greater value on work anniversaries and job promotions than on other life events demonstrates that the platform embraces and reproduces neoliberal beliefs. LinkedIn's decision to focus on these types of events will appear entirely commonsensical — and therefore non-ideological — to most people, because most people understand society from within the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism, and therefore believe valuing individualism, job titles and careers is natural.
However, recent developments — including Elon Musk’s acquisition and transformation of X — have made the ideological nature and functioning of platforms more visible. In this talk, Ico Maly engages with the notion of ideological platforms and metapolitical platforms, which are platforms that are constructed to change what society accepts to be 'normal'. According to Maly, the increasing impact of online platforms asks academics to adopt critical digital discourse analysis as an approach. This approach would allow academic research to more fully comprehend and uncover the ideologies that permeate the online platforms that increasingly shape democratic societies and people's daily lives.
