Revolution.Social Enshittification and “Breaking Kings” (with Cory Doctorow at Web Summit)
Nov 26, 2025
Cory Doctorow, science fiction author and digital‑rights activist, explains how apps became unfixable silos and why anti‑circumvention laws wreck repair and privacy. He explores Europe’s path to open, interoperable alternatives, legalizing jailbreaking as industrial policy, taxing monopoly rents, and preparing for an AI bubble burst.
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Anti-Circumvention Broke The Fixable Web
- Anti-circumvention laws prevent technologists from fixing or modifying platform behavior.
- That legal barrier enabled platforms to resist user-side fixes like ad blockers and lock users into abusive apps.
Legalize Jailbreaking To Spawn Privacy Tools
- Repeal anti-circumvention rules to enable privacy tools and jailbreaks that open closed platforms.
- Let European firms build and sell privacy-enabling tools rather than relying solely on regulators to enforce compliance.
Tractors, Kill Signals, And Corporate Control
- John Deere's remote kill-switch on tractors showed how manufacturer control can be weaponized in conflict.
- That episode illustrates the real risks of monopolized, remotely controlled infrastructure.
