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Why Is The Internet Bad Now?

There’s a new class of public intellectual emerging—the tech pessimist who actually knows how the sausage gets made. They’re not your standard Luddites railing against smartphones; they’re former engineers, economists, and journalists who can offer technical sounding explanations for why your Instagram feed got worse. Frankly, most of the time I find these individuals more bombastic than insightful. Cory Doctorow is different. He is the leader of this new class of commentator while simultaneously being a rigorous thinker about the internet. If you’ve heard of him, you’ve probably heard of the word he invented, “enshittification.” This has become a handwavy term to describe when digital services go bad. Instagram forcing ads down your throat? Enshittification. Amazon being full of junky products? Enshittification. It is a vibe that I, you, and everyone else probably feels. However, enshittification is not just a vibe. It is a specific theory, buttressed by strong claims about anti-trust and consumer rights. This theory has become the go-to framework for understanding platform decay among left-wing regulators, including the former head of the FTC, Lina Khan. In our conversation, Doctorow laid out the three-act tragedy: platforms subsidize users until they’re locked in, then squeeze users to subsidize businesses, then squeeze everyone to pay shareholders. To be transparent, I do not fully subscribe to his framework. Specifically, I’m skeptical that programatic advertising is as ineffective as he claims, and I think he underestimates genuine consumer preferences for convenience over privacy. You’ll hear it in our conversation when I push back on topics like the efficacy of Meta’s ads or why consumers continually choose to consume shitty content. But while I disagree with the totality of his theory, I agree with the underlying emotional feeling. Namely, that the internet can and should be better for people. Consumers should have significantly more rights. Attention economies have consolidated too much power into individual companies and I want regulators to take action so that startups have a fighting chance. In that regard, I found Doctorow to be a kindred spirit. His chosen solution is not the usual “break up Big Tech” handwaving, but specific, implementable fixes. He wants to force platforms to support data portability through open protocols (great idea). Make reverse engineering legal again (great idea). Stop pretending that surveillance advertising works (meh). These aren’t revolutionary, but coming from someone who can speak so eloquently and passionately, they resonate. The timing of his new book matters too. Regulators are circling and even the courts are starting to question whether “free” services can really be monopolies. The wildest part? Doctorow thinks Trump’s trade war might accidentally fix everything. The countries that got screwed by American tech companies now have permission to screw back. Below are the key takeaways of his arguments: https://www.gettheleverage.com/p/why-...