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
Table of Contents
- 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
Activity