The Enshittification of the Internet by Silicon Valley
▼ Summary
– Sarah Jeong is a features editor at The Verge and a journalist-lawyer who has covered tech for a decade, hosting this episode of Decoder.
– Cory Doctorow, a prolific author and tech critic, discusses his new book “Enshittification,” which explains why tech products and platforms have deteriorated.
– Enshittification is a term Cory coined to describe platform decay, where software or websites progressively worsen over time.
– The conversation explores how enshittification intersects with generative AI and its impact on digital experiences for all users.
– Enshittification is framed as both a product and legal issue, addressing tech companies’ market power abuse and regulatory solutions.
Understanding the steady decline of digital platforms has become a central concern for users and creators alike. Cory Doctorow, a widely recognized author and technology activist, offers a compelling explanation for this trend in his latest work. He introduces the concept of “enshittification” to describe the process where online services and software gradually deteriorate in quality and user experience. While the term itself is relatively new, the pattern it describes, often called platform decay, has been frustrating consumers for years.
Doctorow’s book explores why so many tech products feel like they have become significantly worse over time. He argues that enshittification is not accidental but a predictable outcome of market dynamics and corporate decision-making. As platforms grow and capture large user bases, their incentives shift from attracting customers to extracting maximum value from them, often at the expense of service quality. This results in features that prioritize corporate revenue over genuine user benefit.
The rise of generative AI has accelerated this process in noticeable ways. Many everyday digital tools now integrate AI in a manner that degrades their functionality, creating what some critics label “AI slop.” Doctorow sees a strong connection between the proliferation of low-quality AI-generated content and the broader enshittification trend. Both reflect a environment where scale and automation undermine product integrity and user trust.
At its core, the enshittification narrative is deeply tied to legal and regulatory frameworks. Doctorow points to issues like unchecked monopoly power and insufficient antitrust enforcement as key enablers. When tech companies grow so dominant that they face little competition or legal pushback, they gain the freedom to make products worse without losing their user base. This raises urgent questions about which laws can effectively restrain corporate overreach and restore balance to digital markets.
Throughout his analysis, Doctorow draws on years of advocacy around copyright law, Section 230, and other policy areas that shape technology. His perspective suggests that reversing enshittification will require not just better products, but stronger legal safeguards and a renewed commitment to market competition. The conversation about these issues remains as relevant as ever, touching on themes of power, accountability, and the future of the internet itself.
(Source: The Verge)
