Keynote: Enshittification Was a Choice
summary
Argues that internet enshittification is a policy choice and traces a repeatable pattern: platforms start user‑friendly then lock users in, then reallocate surplus to advertisers and publishers. Cites concrete facts: Google pays roughly $25 billion a year to be default search, Amazon’s top sponsored result averages 29% higher than the cheapest good match and the true best result sits 17 places down. Points to weakened antitrust, DMCA anti‑interoperability, captured regulators and lost tech‑worker leverage as the causal levers to reverse.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction and keynote setup
- 1:25What is enshittification
- 2:49Case study: Facebook’s enshittification
- 5:38Why platforms enshittify
- 6:20The four anti-enshittification forces
- 8:29How competition failed
- 9:09Regulation capture explained
- 10:52Loss of interoperability
- 13:01Tech worker power decline
- 14:06Policy choices reversed
- 15:30Current anti-enshittification efforts
- 16:53Future of tech worker power
- 17:35Call to action
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