Escape Forward: Connecting dots beyond the antitrust island

Enshittification of our digital experience: the pathology is clear, but is there a cure?

Nov 27, 2025
Cory Doctorow, an influential author and tech activist, dives into the concept of 'enshitification'โ€”the decline of our online experiences. He discusses the intertwining of market concentration and surveillance that erodes our digital rights. Exploring real-world implications, he highlights the lack of privacy regulations and critiques anti-circumvention laws that stifle innovation. However, Cory remains optimistic about the resurgence of antitrust movements and the potential for competition and regulation to restore a balanced digital ecosystem. His insights are both enlightening and motivating!
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INSIGHT

Surveillance Is A Policy Choice

  • Market concentration enabled surveillance because firms spy on users simply because they can.
  • Cory Doctorow says policy choices, not inevitability, allowed commercial surveillance to flourish.
ANECDOTE

Nurses Penalized By Data Brokers

  • Nurses are hired via apps and penalized by their credit-card debt history purchased from data brokers.
  • Cory Doctorow uses this example to show how surveillance harms workers' wages and safety.
INSIGHT

Guerrilla Tools Once Disciplined Platforms

  • Intermediaries were disciplined by the ability of users to escape or modify services, e.g., ad blockers or jailbreaks.
  • Expanded IP and anti-circumvention law removed those guerrilla checks, empowering platforms to extract more value.
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