This paper extends the theoretical framework of infrastructural religion by examining how digital platforms govern through the allocation of visibility. Building on earlier work that identified legitimacy, infrastructure, procedural enforcement, visibility, and dependency as recurring features of durable governance systems, this study analyzes algorithmic ranking, moderation, monetization, and archival control as contemporary mechanisms of authority. The central claim is precise: within mediated attention environments, control of distribution constitutes a form of domain-specific sovereignty. Platforms do not replicate religious doctrine or state coercion, but they exercise governance over recognition by determining who is seen, heard, amplified, or rendered invisible. Suppression and removal operate as infrastructural analogues to historical forms of excommunication—not through ceremonial pronouncement, but through continuous, automated modulation of reach and access. The paper develops three interrelated arguments: Visibility functions as the allocation of scarce attention rather than as a cultural accident. Ranking systems operate as procedural judgment embedded in code. Withdrawal of distribution can produce a form of digital social death within attention economies. By distinguishing structural continuity from operational transformation, the analysis shows how automation, opacity, experimentation, and economic optimization intensify longstanding governance dynamics without collapsing historical differences. The result is an account of platform authority as ambient, reflexive, and infrastructurally embedded. This paper forms part of the multi-paper series Platforms as Infrastructural Religions, which investigates how algorithmic systems reshape legitimacy, identity, recognition, and sovereignty in the digital age.
Lawrence Nault (Thu,) studied this question.