Cory Doctorow on "Enshittification": How Big Tech Degrades and What to Do

The Stages of Enshittification

• 💡 The term "enshittification" describes how online platforms degrade over time as companies prioritize profit over users.
• 🎯 Initially, platforms are good to end-users to lock them in, then make things worse for users to attract business customers.
• 🔑 Once both users and business customers are locked in, platforms harvest value for shareholders and executives, leaving a "homeopathic residue" for users.

Facebook's Decline and the Metaverse Pivot

• 🚀 Facebook began by promising not to spy on users and only show them what they subscribed to, attracting many users.
• 🔒 Users became locked in due to the "collective action problem," making it difficult to agree on leaving.
• 📈 Zuckerberg then made things worse for users by enabling extensive ad targeting and content stuffing for advertisers and publishers, leading to ad fraud and publisher dependency.
• 🎭 The final stage of enshittification is exemplified by the pivot to the "metaverse," transforming users into surveilled cartoon characters in a virtual world.

The Erosion of Constraints on Big Tech

• ⚠️ Platforms were once constrained by competitors, regulators, and powerful tech workers, but these constraints have been removed.
• 💰 Mergers allowed platforms to buy competitors, and their immense profits enabled them to "capture" regulators.
• 📉 The power of tech workers diminished with layoffs, removing another disciplinary force.
• ⚖️ This lack of external discipline allows companies to do bad things with impunity, mirroring Trump's promise to neuter regulatory bodies.

Policy and the "Enshittogenic" Environment

• 🚫 The "enshittogenic" policy environment, where bad actions go unpunished, is the root cause of platform degradation, not just executive greed.
• 🔒 Laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prevent users from reverse-engineering apps to modify algorithms or stop data theft.
• 🛠️ Instead of replacing one tech leader with another, policies should empower users, co-ops, and startups to modify platforms for user benefit.
• 🛡️ The ability to ad-block on the web, a massive consumer boycott, instilled discipline; similar defenses are needed for apps.

Google's Search Engine Degradation

• 🔍 Google's initial success was with its search engine; most subsequent in-house products have failed.
• 🛒 Google became "too big to care" after acquiring 90% of the search market share, leading to a focus on growth through making search worse.
• 💰 Executives proposed making search results less relevant to show more ads, facing opposition from engineers who built the system.
• 📉 Without worker power or regulatory oversight, companies like Google can prioritize profit over product quality without consequence.

The Fight Back and Portability

• ⚠️ While a breaking point exists where users rebel, it's better to evacuate platforms before they are destroyed.
• 🤝 Platforms serve important functions, like connecting people with rare diseases or affinity groups.
• ✈️ Efforts in the EU for data and social graph portability aim to allow users to move between platforms without losing connections, offering a way to "evacuate" without abandonment.
• 💬 Future discussions will explore platforms like Blue Sky and Mastodon as alternatives.