ABSTRACT
Platform capital through its own governance of content and its ‘moral sensibilities’ will post renewed challenges for societies. This chapter examines how an iconic image can be processed through the technological gaze of platform capital. Through the case study of the ‘Napalm Girl’ and its banning on Facebook, the transcendence of the iconic from the sacred to the profane is traced to discern the power of data empires. The chapter argues that in reframing the iconic, platform capital seizes on moments in which it effaces the iconic through its technological gaze. From a meta-ethical perspective, the chapter is also concerned with the iconoclasm of values and our projects of memory in the digital age.
