WHY IS IT CALLED “ENSHITTIFICATION?
Book review by David Drum
Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification lays out the case against America’s big tech monopolies whose unfettered greed is driving them to run what was once a perfectly good internet into the ground, and he proposes some ways to fight back.
Doctorow remembers the early, hopeful days of the Internet, a time of bright promise and hopes that the world could be connected in a positive way. It was a time of many Internet start-ups and hopes that hundreds of small businesses would develop and bloom under a big, democratic internet umbrella.
After the dot-com boom and bust, the Canadian writer notes, giant monopolies developed here almost unchecked by the U.S. government. Using some combination of brass-knuckle business tactics, deception, secrecy, and a lack of government anti-trust enforcement, huge monopolies developed a stranglehold on portions of the internet.
Doctorow’s sprightly-written work is part expose and part business book. It tracks the development of tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Google and their transition to monster monopolies busily picking pockets and all over the world.
According to Doctorow, the so-called enshittification developed this way:
· Companies provided real value to lock in customers
· They screwed their customers to attract business clients
· Then screwed their business customers to make more money
Facebook edged out My Space by claiming it wouldn’t track its users, unlike the evil Murdochs who owned My Space. When it locked in a customer base, Facebook then began selling its users’ personal information to attract business users who wanted to sell ads (violating its original promise to Facebook users). Before long, Facebook was stiffing its advertisers, too. According to Doctorow, “ad fraud was going wild. Advertisers were paying billions for ads that no one ever saw.”
Amazon took off with a huge surplus from early investors and its big stock market listing. It used its surplus to give customers great deals and added Prime to help lock them in. But Amazon wanted more business and was willing to lose money to get it. Amazon lost a whopping $200 million underselling Diapers.com, a profitable online diaper-selling service which it ran out of business. Companies who listed products on Amazon found the company began using their data to fund “copycat” products that threatened to put them out of business. Using predatory pricing, DRM, and Prime, Doctorow says, Amazon also drove many smaller brick and mortar companies out of business.
Apple put out a good product with the iphone, attracting a loyal customer base by touting its “walled garden” commitment to customer privacy. Apple claimed it wouldn’t ever sell your information, but it secretly collected it for itself. It welcomed ap developers to develop aps for the iphone, at first taking only a one-time fee when customers downloaded the ap. When it locked in the ap developers, Apple then unleashed a snowstorm of junk fees. Meanwhile, Tim Cook figured out how to manufacture iphones in China and ascended to head of the company.
Google developed a great browser, gobbled up market share, began selling ads and messing up its algorithm. Microsoft developed a great word processing system, began asking for us to pay for it forever, and so on all down the line…
Yes, one agrees, the internet has taken a turn for the worst.
Doctorow proposes a number of solutions, most of which involve raising awareness and organizing. Labor unions, stronger government regulation, strengthening anti-trust legislation, and more could make a difference in our digital future. European governments and some states are developing good legislation, which can be supported.
If you feel something is going wrong with the internet, I’d recommend you read Doctorow’s book.
David Drum is a Los Angeles-based writer.