Enshittification: How Big Tech went from innovation to digital feudalism

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About it

by Cory Doctorow

Published by Verso

338 pages ₹1,599

  Remember the time when the internet had just begun to make its way into our daily lives? When email became popular and platforms like Facebook and Amazon seemed to have brought the entire world to our doors with the freedom to choose, buy or connect like never before? Cut to today, and those early days seem like a distant dream. The internet is no longer the place it once was. Cory Doctorow, writer and internet activist, has a word for this decay — Enshittification. 

Mr Doctorow coined the term in 2022 to describe the “sudden-onset platform collapse going on all around us.” Using a term that is both playful and a mouthful, he shows how Big Tech companies that are now a part of our daily lives have started behaving like feudal giants, exerting control where none should ideally occur. Mr Doctorow’s approach in studying this trend is akin to a doctor studying a disease. He begins by giving us the symptoms of enshittification, then moves on to its pathology. This is followed by its epidemiology and, finally, cure. 

Mr Doctorow provides examples of the process of enshittification by exposing the inner workings of Big Tech. He argues that enshittification results from strategies adopted by these companies to increase profits by squeezing their business customers as well as users. In fact, the platform putting itself before the needs of its customers and users is the third and the final stage of the process of enshittification, which he explains using case studies of Facebook, Amazon, iPhone and Twitter. According to him, the lifecycle of these companies has three stages. They are good to their users in stage one, they are good to their business customers in stage two, and finally, as they tighten the screws on both parties to maximise profits, they turn into “a giant pile of shit.” 

The author argues that what leads to this final stage is a cocktail of factors such as a lack of competition, the absence of regulation, an aversion to interoperability, and the eroding powers of tech workers. In their absence, it becomes easy for the companies to worsen their products and force users to agree to their terms. This means that a user can become liable for legal action under section 1201, the “anti-circumvention” provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, simply for refilling an ink cartridge or using a third-party cartridge with their printer. It can also take the form of DoorDash, hiding the tip amount from its drivers so that they feel compelled to make as many deliveries as possible, even though they might not be making a net profit. This is also seen in Google’s memos proposing that users be made to “run multiple queries” by worsening search results, allowing the company to show more ads and earn more money. Though these examples reveal the tip of the iceberg, the good news is that the tide can be turned. We need to bring back competition and regulation, increase interoperability and give back power to workers, Mr  Doctorow argues. It might not be easy, but it’s not impossible. 

Mr Doctorow’s writing is informative and engaging. His arguments gain further credence because he borrows ideas from other thinkers to bolster his point. For instance, he makes use of Yanis Varoufakis’s theory of Technofeudalism, and points out that the power of these Big Tech companies derives mainly from their control of the “factors of production that they rent to actual, productive businesses.” He also manages to break down technical concepts and industry-speak for his readers, helping them get to the heart of the matter without getting entangled in layers of jargon. Having said that, Enshittification is set almost entirely in a North American/European milieu. Given these companies are headquartered in the United States, it’s understandable that Mr Doctorow discusses their impact on (mostly) American users and customers. Considering the global reach and impact of their policies, some examples from other countries would have added to the book’s scope. 

The mischievous quality of the book’s title or the emoji on its cover might mislead readers into dismissing it as lightweight reading. But there is nothing flippant about the book’s thesis or its arguments. Mr Doctorow concludes by pointing out that the “old, good internet” wasn’t so because the people who designed and operated it were inherently better. It was so because there were checks in place to prevent it from turning into today’s “enshitternet”. He ends the book by asserting that “enshittification” is reversible. One hopes for all our sakes that he is right.

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The reviewer is an independent translator