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Cory Doctorow

@cory-doctorow · 15 positions · 0 changes of mind

Science fiction novelist, journalist and activist, a special adviser to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the author of the daily link blog Pluralistic. He coined the word "enshittification" in 2022 to name the way platforms decay, and it was the American Dialect Society's word of the year for 2023.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

Cory Doctorow did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    Platform decay is the result of specific decisions by identifiable people rather than impersonal historical forces, which is precisely what makes it reversible.

    Their wordsI think that the enshittification framework goes a long way to explaining it, moving us out of the mysterious realm of the 'great forces of history,' and into the material world of specific decisions made by named people – decisions we can reverse and people whose addresses and pitchfork sizes we can learn.

    ↗My McLuhan lecture on enshittificationpluralistic.net 1st of 2 in this piece

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    People stay on a platform they have come to dislike because leaving requires everyone they care about to agree to leave at the same time.

    Their wordsIn theory, you could have all just left for somewhere else; in practice, you were hamstrung by the collective action problem.

    ↗My McLuhan lecture on enshittificationpluralistic.net 2nd of 2 in this piece

    Interesting
  4. 6 months earlier

  5. Our reading

    Ranking first in a search has become near enough to being true, which is why search and spam are permanently at war.

    Their wordsGoogle’s the first — and often the last — place we go to for answers, so snagging top billing in a Google search results page is, approximately speaking, equivalent to being “true.”

    ↗Microincentives and Enshittificationpluralistic.net 1st of 2 in this piece

    Google

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    A monopolist that can no longer grow by winning new users can only grow by making its product worse for the users it already has.

    Their wordsThe only way for Google Search to grow is to make itself worse.

    ↗Microincentives and Enshittificationpluralistic.net 2nd of 2 in this piece

    Google

    Interesting
  8. 5 months earlier

  9. Our reading

    Technology bosses are ordinary monopolists rather than evil geniuses, and crediting them with having hacked our dopamine loops flatters them.

    Their wordstech barons are ordinary mediocrities, no better and no worse than the monopolists that preceded them, and any differences come down to affordances in technology and regulation, not an especial wicked brilliance.

    ↗Twiddlerpluralistic.net 1st of 4 in this piece

    design

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    What makes a digital platform more abusive than a physical business is the speed at which it can change the rules, which is what hides the change.

    Their wordsA platform operator can effortlessly change the distribution of surpluses in an instant, while suppliers and customers have to engage in minute, time-consuming and unreliable Platform Kremlinology just to detect these changes, much less understand them.

    ↗Twiddlerpluralistic.net 2nd of 4 in this piece

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    The problem is not that intermediaries exist, but how much power the internet hands them over the people on either side of them.

    Their wordsThe problem isn’t the existence of intermediaries — it’s how much power the internet gives to intermediaries.

    ↗Twiddlerpluralistic.net 3rd of 4 in this piece

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    For an online creator the platform is a boss who fines you for breaking rules he refuses to explain, precisely so that you cannot learn to avoid them.

    Their wordsFor an online creator, the platform is a boss who docks every paycheck and tells you that you’re being punished for breaking rules that your boss refuses to explain, lest you figure out how to violate them without him noticing.

    ↗Twiddlerpluralistic.net 4th of 4 in this piece

    Interesting
  16. 4 weeks earlier

  17. Our reading

    Platforms die in a three-stage cycle: first they are good to users, then they abuse users on behalf of business customers, then they abuse everyone to claw the value back for themselves.

    Their wordsHere is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.

    ↗Tiktok's enshittificationpluralistic.net 1st of 7 in this piece

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    A platform hands out free attention to creators only until they are committed to it, and then withdraws it and sells what they built.

    Their wordsTiktok is only going to funnel free attention to the people it wants to entrap until they are entrapped, then it will withdraw that attention and begin to monetize it.

    ↗Tiktok's enshittificationpluralistic.net 2nd of 7 in this piece

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    There is no attention economy: attention cannot serve as money, so a platform must always convert it into cash at somebody's expense.

    Their words"Monetize" is a terrible word that tacitly admits that there is no such thing as an "Attention Economy." You can't use attention as a medium of exchange.

    ↗Tiktok's enshittificationpluralistic.net 3rd of 7 in this piece

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    The end-to-end principle -- that a willing speaker's message reaches the willing listeners who asked for it -- is dead at the service level of today's internet.

    Their wordsThe end-to-end principle is dead at the service level today.

    ↗Tiktok's enshittificationpluralistic.net 4th of 7 in this piece

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    Closing off interoperability is how a platform locks people in, and that lock-in is what lets the service be made worse without losing them.

    Their wordsThe temptation to enshittify is magnified by the blocks on interoperability: when Twitter bans interoperable clients, nerfs its APIs, and periodically terrorizes its users by suspending them for including their Mastodon handles in their bios, it makes it harder to leave Twitter, and thus increases the amount of enshittification users can be force-fed without risking their departure.

    ↗Tiktok's enshittificationpluralistic.net 5th of 7 in this piece

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    A dominant platform is more fragile than it looks, because pushing users far enough makes even the locked-in ones leave.

    Their wordsAn enshittification strategy only succeeds if it is pursued in measured amounts. Even the most locked-in user eventually reaches a breaking-point and walks away, or gets pushed.

    ↗Tiktok's enshittificationpluralistic.net 6th of 7 in this piece

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    Policy should secure people's freedom to leave a platform while keeping their community, their purchases and their data, rather than try to keep dying platforms alive.

    Their wordsAnd policymakers should focus on freedom of exit – the right to leave a sinking platform while continuing to stay connected to the communities that you left behind, enjoying the media and apps you bought, and preserving the data you created

    ↗Tiktok's enshittificationpluralistic.net 7th of 7 in this piece

    Interesting