Geert Lovink will introduce the current projects of the Amsterdam-based Institute of Network Cultures and present his forthcoming book Platform Brutality (Valiz Publishers, September 2025).

Where is platform theory today? What follows the never-ending phase of internet regression? Were you also stuck on the platform?

Lovink proposes a distinction, a dialectic between the accelerationist, violent phase of internet culture unfolding under the rise of the Elon – Trump regime, and the long-term attempt to establish a techno-feudalist economy in which “cloud rent” and enslaved users play vital roles.

How can we resist this trajectory? Can we accelerate with our stacktivist proposals to build a European digital infrastructure? Stop dreaming of sovereignty and join the Internet Core.

Geert Lovink is a Dutch media theorist, internet critic and author of Uncanny Networks (2002), Dark Fiber (2002), My First Recession (2003), Zero Comments (2007), Networks Without a Cause (2012), Social Media Abyss (2016), Organization after Social Media (with Ned Rossiter, 2018), Sad by Design (2019), Stuck on the Platform (2022) and Platform Brutality (2025). He studied politcal ande social sciences at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and received his PhD from the University of Melbourne. In 2004 he founded the Institute of Network Cultures (www.networkcultures.org) at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA), which will become independent mid 2026 after his retirement. From 2007–2018 he was media theory professor at the European Graduate School. In December 2021 he was appointed Professor of Art and Network Cultures at the UvA Art History Department. He's part of support campaigns for Ukranian artists, in particular UkrainaTV (Krakow) and the related StreamArtNetwor