Why Does It Feel Like Everything is Getting Worse? With Cory Doctorow

Intelligence Squared

How can we reverse the enshittification of digital platforms? With Cory Doctorow

Why does every online platform seem to start out great - then slowly turn to garbage? Why do our digital public squares now feel more like corporate malls... or burning trash heaps?

‘Enshittification’ has been word of the year in the UK, USA and Australia. It's been printed in the pages of the FT and declaimed from podiums at the EU. As a word, it captures the feeling of a world that is ever worsening.

Cory Doctorow, the tech and ethics writer who coined the term, argues that enshittification is not a technical glitch, but a technique that every platform - from X to TikTok, Amazon to Apple, has adopted on purpose to maximise profit at the expense of user experience.

In this episode, Doctorow joins Carl Miller to break down what this relentless downward spiral means for democracy, privacy, creativity, and trust, and what can be done to reverse it.

Doctorow offers a roadmap for reclaiming a better digital future. From breaking monopolies and restoring interoperability to empowering tech workers and enforcing real regulation, this is a conversation about what's broken, and how we can fix it.

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