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cover of episode The Ensh*ttification of Everything

The Ensh*ttification of Everything

2024/6/21
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On the Media

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B
Brooke Gladstone
C
Cory Doctorow
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Brooke Gladstone:探讨了互联网平台的衰败现象,以Twitter为例,指出其从不可或缺到可有可无的转变。并与Cory Doctorow讨论了解决方案。 Cory Doctorow:提出了“enshittification”的概念,解释了互联网平台的恶化过程,分为三个阶段:第一阶段,公司对用户好,提供低于成本价的服务以吸引用户;第二阶段,平台开始挤压用户利益,为商业伙伴谋利;第三阶段,平台挤压商业伙伴利益,进一步丰富自己。并分析了平台如何通过锁定用户、利用法律漏洞等手段来维持其垄断地位。他还以Facebook和Amazon为例,详细阐述了其“enshittification”的过程。 Cory Doctorow还分析了科技巨头利用技术优势快速改变规则,以及反垄断法在里根时代实施偏差导致垄断企业得以形成并积累权力,难以再次瓦解。他提出了“巨型泰迪熊理论”,解释了平台如何通过给予某些创作者巨额回报来吸引更多创作者加入平台,从而巩固其垄断地位。并分析了平台利用现有的法律法规打击试图揭露其商业模式的个人或组织。 最后,Cory Doctorow提出了三个解决方案:1. 回归基于内容而非行为的广告模式;2. 实现互操作性,允许用户在不同的平台上使用自己的数据和软件;3. 赋予用户“退出权”,允许用户带着自己的数据和社区成员离开平台。并以播客行业为例,说明了其由于其基于RSS的开放性和去中心化特性,目前相对不受“enshittification”的影响。 Brooke Gladstone:总结了互联网平台“enshittification”的三阶段过程,并与Cory Doctorow讨论了反垄断执法、互联网平台的整合导致行业利益一致,使得制定有效的监管政策变得困难等问题。还讨论了《儿童在线隐私保护法案》(COPPA)的执行不力,以及立法者对技术问题缺乏了解等问题。最后,表达了对互联网平台未来改善的希望,并认为通过改变现状,可以找到新的解决途径。

Deep Dive

Chapters
The internet, particularly platforms like Twitter, seems to be on a downward spiral. This decline, termed "enshittification," describes how platforms evolve from valuable tools to something far less desirable.
  • Enshittification is the death cycle of platforms.
  • Platforms are not effectively regulated nor face sufficient competition.
  • Twitter's decline from essential to dispensable illustrates platform decay.

Shownotes Transcript

Why does every social media platform seem to get worse over time? This week’s On the Media explores an expansive theory on how we lost a better version of the internet, and the systems that insulate Big Digital from competition. Plus, some solutions for fixing the world wide web.

[01:00] Host Brooke Gladstone interviews Cory Doctorow, journalist, activist, and the author of Red Team Blues, on his theory surrounding the slow, steady descent of the internet. 

[15:59] Brooke asks Cory if the troubles that plague some corners of the internet are specific to Big Digital, rather than the economy at large—and how our legal systems enabled it all. Doctorow explains how the antitrust practices of the early 1900s went awry, and what exactly he means by “twiddling.” 

[31:29] Cory and Brooke discuss possible solutions to save the world wide web.  Among them: better enforcement of privacy laws, interoperability, and the ever elusive "right-to-exit." Plus, hear about the one industry that so far has been mostly immune to the forces of "enshittification." 

This episode originally aired on our September 1, 2023 program, How Big Tech Went to Sht*).

Further reading:

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