Cory Doctorow on Fighting Enshitification and the Rise of Antitrust Action

Global Surge in Antitrust Action

• 🌍 A significant, yet often unnoticed, surge in antitrust action has occurred globally since the late 2010s.
• 🇪🇺 Europe is leading this charge with muscular legislation like the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, prompting companies like Apple to threaten product withdrawal.
• 🇨🇦 Canada has enacted its most aggressive antitrust law in history, empowering its Competition Bureau.
• 🇬🇧 The UK has also seen substantial antitrust efforts, including a large technical antitrust unit.
• 🇨🇳 China's Cyberspace Directive bans tech companies from blocking smaller competitors, driven by Xi Jinping's concern over their domestic power.

Drivers of Antitrust Momentum

• ⚖️ The current antitrust wave defies traditional political logic, acting as if the law of gravity has been repealed.
• 📈 Factors contributing to this include the realization that concentrated wealth is the root of many societal problems.
• 🧠 While antitrust law has been dormant for decades, the concept of anti-monopoly is understood as directly opposing wealth concentration.
• 🤝 Political change is often downstream of coalition formation, and a shared understanding of concentrated wealth can unite diverse groups.

Skepticism of Individual Consumption Habits

• 🛒 Changing personal consumption habits is unlikely to dismantle monopolies or solve systemic issues like the climate emergency.
• 💡 While personal choices can improve individual well-being (e.g., switching platforms for mental health), they are not a substitute for systemic change.
• ✊ Political movements and collective action are essential for driving meaningful change.

The Role of the Electronic Frontier Alliance

• 🌐 The Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA), a network of activist groups, works on local issues like facial recognition ordinances, rent collusion, and right-to-repair laws.
• 🏘️ These efforts target how monopolies infiltrate daily life at the state and local levels.
• 🌍 Unlike historical monopolies, modern tech monopolies affect everyone similarly worldwide, allowing for the replication of successful strategies across different regions and territories.

Acquiring Cory Doctorow's Book

• 📚 Cory Doctorow's book, "Enshitification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to do About it," is available in bookstores nationwide.
• 🎧 Audiobook versions are not available on Amazon or Audible due to platform lock-in policies, but can be found on platforms like Libro.fm and Google Play.
• 💻 Ebooks and audiobooks purchased directly from craphound.com/shop are owned outright, not licensed, allowing for resale, gifting, or lending.