The word platform has exploded in popularity — it’s become a household term. At first glance, it seems to describe any online service, often an app, sometimes paired with a website.

The term might seem harmless — just a label for a type of digital space. But platform wasn’t chosen randomly. It was carefully introduced and popularized by advertisers to shape how we think and talk about the web. And language matters — it sets expectations. Especially when a word carries with it strong mental imagery. I’ll get to that in a second.

Advertisers, not platforms, are the real gatekeepers of online speech. That’s been true ever since ad-supported business models became the default for nearly every online service. Some call this system surveillance capitalism.

Now you might be wondering, “Sean, what does any of this have to do with the word platform?” Stay with me.

You’ve probably seen a comment like this before: “Why are you even talking to this person? Why are you giving them a platform?” So what does it mean to “give someone a platform,” exactly? I remember asking myself the same thing years ago. And what came to mind was a very literal image — something like this:

I found this image searching for ‘man talking atop a platform’. So the answer is pretty clear. ‘Stop giving them a platform” essentially means “Stop allowing them to spread their ideas to so many people”.

But why?

Here’s where things start to twist: the word platform pulls double duty. On one level, it paints a picture of neutrality — a structure, like a stage or train platform, just sitting there, available for anyone to stand on. It sounds passive, impartial. That’s not an accident. This framing is a deliberate choice, designed to shift accountability away from the platform itself. It tells us the platform isn’t responsible for the ideas shared on it — the speaker is. And that’s exactly how it should be.

In a free society, responsibility lies with the individual, not the infrastructure. But companies have warped this framing into a shield. They lean on the word platform when it’s convenient, dodging legal and moral responsibility — yet the moment advertisers get uncomfortable, they throw neutrality out the window and start curating, suppressing, and moderating content that isn’t even remotely illegal. That isn’t platforming — it’s publishing. And it’s censorship, dressed in the language of responsibility.

But then, platform is also weaponized in public discourse. When someone says, “Don’t give them a platform,” it no longer sounds neutral at all. Now the platform is a gift, a kind of implicit endorsement — a megaphone, a crowd, legitimacy.

That shift in meaning isn’t an accident either. It’s a tool. It turns the focus away from corporate responsibility (moderation, amplification, algorithmic boosting) and back toward individual users. You’re responsible for what people hear. Not the platform. You gave them a platform.

This rhetorical sleight-of-hand benefits exactly one group: advertisers.

Advertisers don’t want their logo anywhere near controversy. They don’t want to be “adjacent” to ideas that might offend — not because they care, but because association threatens the illusion of control their brands are built on.

So advertisers lean on platforms. And platforms, in turn, lean on users. Terms of service grow teeth. Community guidelines tighten. People get demonetized, deboosted, shadowbanned — all in the name of “safety” and “brand integrity.”

But let’s not forget: this whole language game started because advertisers needed an abstraction layer. A way to sell the idea that the web is just a passive space — a platform — rather than an infrastructure of choices, policies, algorithms, and curation.

If you control the language, you control the narrative. And if you control the narrative, you don’t need to answer for your role in shaping it.

So the next time you hear someone invoke the word platform, ask yourself: who benefits from this framing? Who’s being let off the hook? And what does this term obscure about the true architecture of power online?

Because platform isn’t just a word — it’s a disguise.

– S