This Is Hell! Enshittification / Cory Doctorow
Oct 14, 2025
Cory Doctorow, a renowned author and activist focused on digital rights, delves into the concept of 'enshittification' in this engaging discussion. He explores why beloved internet platforms degrade over time and contrasts this with planned obsolescence. Cory warns that users become the product when companies prioritize profit over quality. He argues that systemic issues like deregulation enable decay, and calls for public options to foster competition. Finally, he connects these topics to broader themes of democracy and corporate power.
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Enshittification Is Systemic And Rapid
- Platforms that were once good to users now degrade rapidly across the board.
- Cory Doctorow calls this accelerating pattern 'enshittification' and warns it affects physical and digital life.
Loss Of Discipline Enables Decay
- Enshittification follows when companies lose external discipline from rivals, regulators, workers, or consumers.
- Doctorow shows legal and market structures remove consequences, enabling platforms to abuse users.
Rent, Not Profit, Explains Harmful Behavior
- Decay isn't about profits but about extracting rent from ownership of critical access.
- Doctorow cites Yanis Varoufakis: platforms charge rents by controlling essential connections, not by improving services.
