I have followed Cory Doctorow’s work for a long time, so much of this conversation with Trevor Noah was amazing. One of the clearest and most entertaining explanations of why our technology keeps getting worse after we have already paid for it.
Cory connects enshittification to monopoly power, DRM, hostile repair restrictions and Section 1201 of the DMCA. When companies can prevent competitors and owners from modifying a product, buying something no longer means that you control it. You merely receive temporary permission to use it under conditions that can change whenever the manufacturer feels like it.
Google deliberately degrading search to paired replacement parts, disappearing digital purchases and platforms squeezing both users and businesses. Cory is fast, funny and fundamentally right. He has the rare ability to turn complicated technical and political machinery into something understandable without making it trivial.
The most useful part is that he does not treat the decline of the internet as an inevitable natural process. These systems were created by laws, business decisions and failures of regulation. They can therefore be changed by interoperability, antitrust enforcement and a meaningful right to repair.
This is a long episode, but a very worthwhile one, especially alongside my older posts about Cory Doctorow and the destructive consequences of the DMCA.
Listen to Cory Doctorow: You Bought It, They Break It on What Now? with Trevor Noah.
