It’s not a typo. Pravilege is actually quite a useful, if ugly, word that I would like to see revitilised. In Middle English, it meant an evil law or privilege, and was a play on words from the Latin privilegium and pravus “wrong, bad”. I use it to flag moments when platforms get an advantage that outweighs their contribution.
A platform is something that presents itself as an enabler. But never forget the aim of a platform is to become a rentier. Think Uber, JustEat, Patreon. They want to make money off other people’s work for doing nothing besides attracting people, processing payments, and slicing a percentage. The more people using their platform, the more money they make, but the less work they do per action. It’s scalable. There’s also a winner-takes-all effect. If everyone’s buying on Ebay, why would you sell on AcmeAuctions? The platforms make a lot of money, but it’s a tax on the work of their contributors (taxi drivers, restaurants, freelance designers). And this is a tax that concentrates with the platform owners and does not fund the things people need, like schools or hospitals, because our governments are inept at taxing platforms (and spending tax receipts wisely, but that’s another story). Platform Pravileges steal The Goose’s Common.
