Platforms as Infrastructural Religions: Authority, Visibility, and the Migration of Social Control into Code

This pre-print reframes large-scale digital platforms as systems of social authority rather than neutral communication tools, arguing that they now perform functions historically associated with organized religion by governing visibility, legitimacy, and participation. It introduces the concepts of platform orthodoxy, algorithmic nationalism, and geo-digital sovereignty to explain how ideological dominance, exclusion, and jurisdiction are produced through infrastructure and algorithmic enforcement rather than belief or doctrine. The paper offers a conceptual framework for analyzing platform power, AI-mediated governance, and the migration of authority into code.