Section Article

Digital Memory and Social Justice: Whose Histories Survive in the Age of Platform Archives?
Author(s): Prof. Jivika

Abstract
The rapid expansion of digital platforms has fundamentally transformed how societies create preserve circulate and remember the past. Photographs videos personal narratives political events cultural practices community histories and everyday interactions are increasingly stored within commercial platforms rather than traditional archives libraries museums or locally controlled repositories. Although digital technologies appear to democratize memory by allowing individuals and communities to document their experiences the survival and visibility of digital memories are shaped by platform policies algorithms commercial priorities technical infrastructures and unequal access to digital resources. Consequently not every history receives the same opportunity to remain visible searchable accessible or transferable across generations. This paper examines digital memory through the perspectives of social justice cultural recognition archival power and digital inequality. Drawing on the capability approach memory studies critical archival scholarship and research on platform governance the study uses a qualitative conceptual methodology based on secondary literature and institutional sources. It argues that platform archives are not neutral repositories but socially and commercially organized systems that influence whose memories become durable and whose histories become marginalized deleted buried or forgotten. The paper proposes a justice-oriented approach to digital memory that emphasizes community ownership archival pluralism transparency accessibility preservation rights and participation in decisions concerning the long-term survival of collective histories.