Podcast – Cory Doctorow's craphound.com Enshittification With Lina Khan at the Brooklyn Public Library
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Oct 11, 2025 
Lina Khan, former Chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and a leading voice in antitrust, dives deep into her concepts of 'Enshittification'. She and Cory discuss how digital platforms worsen over time due to systemic policy failures. They explore the harmful surveillance business model and its implications for privacy law. The duo emphasizes the necessity of coalition-building for privacy reform and compares current regulatory landscapes with European standards. Khan also examines AI's role in exacerbating these issues, posing risks while presenting potential remedies.
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Surveillance Harms Build Broad Coalitions
- Commercial surveillance creates concrete harms: targeted exploitation, price and wage discrimination, and facilitation of fraud and abuse.
- Lina and Cory argue these harms unite diverse coalitions for privacy reform beyond abstract privacy debates.
Labor Was A Key Check That Eroded
- Tech workers once constrained bad product choices by holding employers accountable through scarce talent and mission-driven loyalty.
- Massive layoffs and weakened labor power removed that internal check, enabling inshittification.
Products Can Be Altered After Sale
- Digital products can be tethered and changed post-sale, unlike physical goods, enabling firms to degrade products or convert features into paid add-ons.
- Legal rules like the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions amplified manufacturers' control after sale.
