Cory Doctorow on 'Enshittification' and How Tech Got Worse

Understanding Enshittification

• 💡 Enshittification is a term coined by Cory Doctorow to describe the decay of online platforms, where they progressively worsen for users, then business customers, and finally themselves.
• 🎯 This decay is not due to worse people but rather reduced fear of consequences for bad behavior, driven by policy and regulatory changes.
• 🔑 The term emerged from a need for a memorable metaphor to explain complex platform decay to a broader audience.

The Stages of Platform Decay

• 🚀 Stage One: Platforms are initially good to end-users to lock them in.
• 📈 Stage Two: Once users are locked in, platforms make things worse for users to benefit business customers (e.g., advertisers).
• 📉 Stage Three: Finally, platforms make things worse for business customers too, harvesting all surplus value for shareholders and executives.
• ⚠️ This pattern is exemplified by Facebook, which, despite consistent leadership, has shifted from user-centricity to value extraction.

Drivers of Enshittification

• 🏛️ A key turning point was the 2017 W3C decision to incorporate Digital Rights Management (DRM) into browsers, limiting user control and accessibility under pressure from streaming companies.
• ⚖️ The collapse of external disciplinary forces on companies, including market competition and regulatory oversight, is central to the problem.
• 🚫 Tech companies have become large due to unchecked mergers, predatory pricing (e.g., Amazon and Diapers.com), and a lack of robust antitrust enforcement.
• 🔌 The loss of interoperability due to IP law, particularly anti-circumvention laws like the DMCA, prevents users from modifying or controlling their devices and apps.
• 🧑‍💻 The decline in tech worker power, exacerbated by mass layoffs and the failure to unionize, has removed a crucial check on corporate behavior.

AI and the Future of the Internet

• 🤖 Generative AI is seen as accelerating enshittification, leading to 'AI slop' and a shift from user-to-user interaction to 'slop-to-slop' communication.
• ✍️ While AI training may rely on fair use principles, the economic foundations of AI are questionable, with massive capital outlay and questionable revenue models primarily focused on wage displacement rather than genuine innovation.
• 💼 The Writer's Guild's success in negotiating with studios offers a model for creative workers, suggesting sectoral bargaining as a more effective strategy than relying on copyright law alone.
• 🚫 Doctorow expresses no optimism but significant hope, believing that action and collective organizing can lead to positive change, citing increased antitrust actions globally as a sign of shifting dynamics.

Potential Solutions and Strategies

• 📞 Identity portability and easier platform exit mechanisms, similar to phone number portability, are crucial for empowering users.
• ✊ Labor organizing among tech workers is vital, even in the current climate, to regain worker power and push back against exploitative practices.
• 🌍 Global antitrust efforts and the potential to