Digital platforms are taking control of more and more areas of our lives. We interact with them every day when we buy stuff (Amazon), socialise (TikTok), book a doctor’s appointment (doctolib), search for a new flat (Immoscout24) or watch videos (YouTube). Platforms do not produce anything themselves; they enrich themselves through a share of the profits generated by those operating on their platforms, by reinforcing inequalities.

Traditional responses to this have fallen short. Regulation, taxation or open-source alternatives do not tackle the problem at its core. Instead, we need to democratise platforms, and campaigns such as “Deutsche Wohnungen & Co Enteignen” have paved the way. The platforms and their digital control over the goods and services of our daily lives must be socialised and placed under democratic control to serve the public interest. Let's think about digital platforms in radically democratic terms AND reclaim this social control in a very practical way.