Crash Course Economics

Enshittification: The Rise and Fall of Big Tech — with Cory Doctorow

Jan 24, 2024

Writer-activist Cory Doctorow discusses the rise of Rentier and Monopoly Capitalism in the tech sector. Topics include disassembling Big Tech, creative labor markets and monopolies, and destroying surveillance capitalism. They explore the concept of 'enshitification' and the need for collective action through unionization to address big tech's problems.

58:57

Creator website

Episode guests

Cory Doctorow

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Quick takeaways

Interoperability is crucial in challenging the dominance of big tech companies, enabling newcomers to compete against established players by modifying and connecting diverse technologies.

Enforcing competition laws is essential to break the dominance of big tech companies and prevent them from abusing their power and capturing regulators.

Privacy laws are vital in addressing the negative effects of big tech, empowering users, mitigating mind control technologies, misinformation, and surveillance.

Deep dives

The Role of Interoperability in Combating Monopoly Capitalism

Interoperability is a significant aspect in challenging the dominance of big tech companies. It involves the ability for users to modify and connect diverse technologies, which historically enabled newcomers to challenge dominant players. However, current laws and policies restrict interoperability, allowing monopolistic firms to control market access, technology, and resources. The result is the extraction of substantial rents from smaller competitors and users, while undermining regulations and democratic processes. To address this, it is crucial to enforce competition laws, design regulations fit for purpose, restore individual rights to modify technology, and strengthen tech workers' unions.

The Importance of Ad Blockers for Privacy and Revenue

01:20

The Impact of Digital Digitization on Repair Restrictions

01:16

Resisting the Pathology of Big Tech

00:45

The Business Model of Facebook

00:38

Introduction

4min

Introduction to the Webinar and Speaker

2min

Interoperability in Digital Technology and its Constraints

17min

The Internet's Role in Social Justice Movements

3min

Enshitification: The Disease of Technological Degradation

28min

The Importance of Unionization and Collective Action in Addressing Big Tech's Problems

5min

In this first Crash Course episode of the new series, we invite writer-activist Cory Doctorow to explore the rise of Rentier and Monopoly Capitalism in the tech sector. Is the platform economy in the last phase of what he calls Enshittification?

“First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.” - Cory Doctorow

We will ask him:

How do big tech companies lock out competition and lock in users?
To explain his concept of Enshittification and relate it to the rise of Rentier and Monopoly Capitalism.
Are there historical parallels to the current trend? If so, what can we learn from them?
Are we entering a new phase of capitalism where the rentier is at the top of the food chain? If platform and productive capital interests are at odds, what possibilities exist for workers and consumers to exploit this rift?
How do we stop further corporate consolidation and monopoly power and build back a different economy?

Cory Doctorow is an activist and journalist. He writes seemingly non-stop about the internet, the future, radical changes in property rights and alternative futures. His work includes children’s books, fiction and non-fiction.

Topics include How to disassemble Big Tech, Creative labour markets and monopolies, and How to destroy surveillance capitalism. He is also known for his website, Pluralistic.net.

He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University, a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. He was born in Toronto, Canada, and now lives in Los Angeles, USA.

Check out more on Cory Doctorow on Pluralistic.net or Craphound.com

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About Crash Course Economics

Crash Course is a platform designed to open up debate on how we can move out of the current crisis and make the necessary steps towards achieving social, economic, ecological and regenerative justice.

Crash Course is inviting global experts to break down complex issues in lay terms and make them accessible to all so that we can understand how to shape our economic system for a just recovery and future.

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Music credit: "Capital G" by Nine Inch Nails, "Tribal Remix" by Imnotlouis (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)