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It's not your job to fix the internet

Overview

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It's not your job to fix the internet

The Vergecast

Nov 18
The Vergecast

The Vergecast

Nov 18
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Enshittification. It's fun to say, hard to spell, and a useful descriptor of exactly how the internet has gone wrong. Cory Doctorow, the author and activist who coined the term a few years ago, recently published a book on the subject, called Enshittificat...

Highlights

The internet, once hailed as a democratizing force, has increasingly become a playground for monopolistic platforms that prioritize profit over people. In this conversation, author and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow unpacks the mechanics of what he calls 'enshittification'—a process where online services slowly degrade from useful tools into exploitative systems.
09:58
Systemic problems require systemic solutions, not individual consumer choices.
12:27
Platform enshittification is caused by policy decisions, not just greedy tech leaders
29:51
Users should be able to transfer data between platforms as freely as phone numbers.
43:32
Facebook refused to fix a security flaw that allowed non-members to enumerate private group members, citing ad-tech integration.
48:30
Making it illegal for gig workers to know the unit cost of their labor undermines fair work practices
53:55
Is enshittification inevitable? Advice for founders on building non-toxic platforms.
56:37
Unionizing workers and open-sourcing code can prevent platform decay.

Chapters

What really happens when platforms stop caring about users?
00:00
Why individual choices can't fix broken tech systems
12:27
Could seamless platform switching save the social web?
25:00
Reclaiming control: How local-first tools put users first
36:00
Inside the gig economy's hidden pay traps
48:30
When your tractor runs on monopoly software
53:55
How to build a platform that won’t turn against its users
56:37

Transcript

David Pierce: Welcome to the VergeCast, the flagship podcast of transferring all value to your business customers. I'm your friend David Pierce, and I am sitting here in my almost entirely empty basement. Right behind me is where my desk used to be, but it...