Cory Doctorow

You already know the feeling. The app that used to work, doesn’t. The platform that once connected you now surveils you. The internet that promised everything has delivered misogyny, manipulation, conspiracy and fraud.

Journalist Cory Doctorow has a word for it, and you’ve probably already used it: Enshittification. 

Word of the year across the UK, US and Australia and cited in the Financial Times, enshittification is not just a technical glitch or a feeling – it’s a diagnosis of a world that is ever worsening. 

It’s a technique that tech giants use to lure users and businesses in. They offer a valuable service with hidden lock-ins, which lets the platforms degrade their services, extracting value from businesses and users alike, tormenting their captives with impunity. So all the digital spaces we rely upon have transformed into giant piles of (inescapable) shit.  

So what do we do about it? Doctorow isn’t just here to name the rot. He wants to cut it out, question the monopolies, demand regulation, fight for interoperability and our privacy, and win tech workers’ rights. The question is, are we ready for the cure?