Better Offline CZM Rewind: Cory Doctorow and Ed Zitron on Enshittification and the Rot Economy
104 snips
May 6, 2026 
Cory Doctorow, author and digital-rights activist known for his work with the EFF, and Ed Zitron, tech commentator, discuss platform decay and the “rot economy.” They trace how search and social systems degrade, debate AI’s investment bubble and which AI bets leave lasting value, and lay out civic and worker actions to push back against tech’s harmful incentives.
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Platforms Deliberately Degrade Quality To Grow Revenue
- Platforms sometimes make products worse on purpose to increase engagement and ad impressions.
- Ed Zitron describes Google’s 2020 "code yellow" and Prabhakar Raghavan pushing changes that reduced search quality to boost impressions.
Policy Created The Rot Economy Not Just Bad Users
- The 'rot economy' arises from policy choices that created unrestrained, growth-at-all-costs platforms.
- Cory Doctorow ties repeated anti-competitive acquisitions and regulatory capture to firms becoming 'too big to care'.
Attend Town Halls To Stop Harmful AI Projects
- Show up to local meetings to oppose harmful AI infrastructure projects like data centers.
- Ed Zitron urges attending town halls and telling officials there is limited real revenue in AI to block unneeded builds.