Cory Doctorow has garnered a lot of needed attention to the decline of modern online platforms, including Google Search, Facebook and Twitter. Much of this is a result of coining the now-viral term Enshittification. Today we’ll talk about how the internet was broken and who’s to blame. We’ll also discuss the lack of privacy laws and the threats of AI to tech workers and copyrighted works. Finally, we’ll discuss Cory’s novel proposal for how countries could respond to US tariffs by ripping up intellectual property agreements, changing the power dynamic of the Big Tech industry and hopefully benefiting consumers in the process.

Interview Notes

Cory’s blog (Pluralistic): https://pluralistic.net/
Canada shouldn’t retaliate with US tariffs: https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/#its-the-only-war-the-yankees-lost-except-for-vietnam-and-also-the-alamo-and-the-bay-of-ham
Who Broke the Internet? https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353-the-naked-emperor
Enshittification book (coming Oct 2025): https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
Regex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression
Copyright and AI: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/01/1119486/ai-copyright-meta-anthropic/

Further Info

Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/security-apress-books
My book: https://fdsd.me/book
My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter
Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support
Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons
Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch

0:00:00: Intro
0:02:07: Humble Bundle!
0:03:09: Interview preview
0:06:52: Has coining the term Enshittification helped to raise awareness?
0:11:08: Who broke the internet?
0:20:15: Will AI reduce tech workers’ power?
0:27:21: Why can we not get privacy laws?
0:35:21: How should countries respond to US tariffs?
0:39:57: Do DRM protections incentize creators?
0:44:37: What’s your take on the Anthropic AI copyright decision?
0:55:03: What’s next for you?
0:56:04: Interview wrap-up
0:57:27: Hacker summer camp
0:59:28: Patron podcast preview
1:00:24: Looking ahead

Interview Notes

Further Info

Table of Contents

Q&A Episode - TLDR, Dune, and Starr Squat Technique | Starting Strength Radio #224