this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
88 points (91.5% liked)
Enshittification
4041 readers
11 users here now
What is enshittification?
The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source
The lifecycle of Big Internet
We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.
Embrace, extend and extinguish
We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Would if they could, but ….. the key is going from a dominant corporatocracy to more diffuse centers of technology.
Think of the common charger regulations. We here in the US would still be tied to proprietary chargers at excessive prices, but we have USB-C because EU is big enough
Or think of something as basic as encryption. Not too many years ago, US dominated encryption technology and only the simplest was allowed worldwide. That basically created encryption technology centers in Israel and Ireland, and now we all benefit