PoliticsJOE Podcast We have become slaves to Silicon Valley | Cory Doctorow interview
Nov 30, 2025
In a thought-provoking discussion, author and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow dives into his book, Enshittification. He outlines the three-stage process of enshittification, using Facebook as a case study for how tech companies prioritize profit over user experience. Cory explores the impact of anti-circumvention laws on competition and the alarming trend of digital locks in everyday devices. He advocates for policy changes to reclaim technological autonomy and addresses the necessity of fighting corporate power for a fairer future.
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The Three-Stage Platform Decline
- Platforms go through a three-stage decay: win users, lock them in, then extract value until they become unusable.
- Cory Doctorow links this pattern to platform structure and changing incentives over the last decade.
Facebook As The Prototype Case
- Cory Doctorow uses Facebook as a prototype: it attracted users, locked them in, then prioritized advertisers and degraded service.
- He traces the arc from college-only network to advertising surveillance to the final 'pile of shit' stage.
Loss Of Technological Self-Determination
- The internet used to allow technological self-determination: users could migrate their data or run their own tools.
- Expanded IP law and anti-circumvention rules have closed that escape hatch and frozen users into platforms.
