Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This trenchant treatise from journalist and novelist Doctorow (The Internet Con) explores how and why the internet has devolved into a wasteland of scams, ads, and surveillance. Platforms from Google to Apple to Facebook have deliberately worsened themselves, he argues--as their users "remain trapped in their rotting carcasses unable to escape"--by pursuing monopolistic goals including limited competition, regulatory capture, and diminished worker power, all of which has rendered these platforms not only too big to fail but "too big to care." Some infuriating examples of callousness include Amazon's "mountain of junk fees" for merchants, which make up "nearly 50%" of the company's revenue, and Uber's "algorithmic wage discrimination," which lowers the rates of drivers who work longer hours. The book's wonky discussions of techno-feudalism and IP are balanced by the author's wry sense of humor--"For a man with a dick-shaped rocket, Jeff Bezos sure has an abiding hatred of our kidneys"--especially his deeply held and repeatedly emphasized contempt for the "extractive" inkjet printer market (the "most depressing category of goods imaginable"). The book staves off doom and gloom with a latter section that analyzes potential remedies, among them antitrust efforts like those pursued by former FTC chair Lina Kahn, recent legislation in Europe, and the unionization of tech workers. The result is a razor-sharp yet subtly optimistic look at the soul-sucking state of the internet. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Doctorow (Picks and Shovels) first introduced the concept of "enshittification" in 2022, and it quickly became a fun and subversive buzzword. It refers to the degradation in quality and experience of online platforms over time. The trend that this word describes has only gotten worse in those years. Doctorow now explores the reasons why, and surmises on what effect the chaotic politics of early 2025 will have on the topic. Framed like a medical report, his case studies of Facebook, Amazon, iPhone, and Twitter demonstrate the "natural history" of platform enshittification, where excess value is redistributed away from users or business customers over time, making the experience worse for everyone. Doctorow explores "pathologies," or technical and economic reasons for this behavior, particularly monopolies and cost-switching for users. The "cure" includes antitrust efforts, regulation, unionization, and data portability proposals. The promise is that platforms could return to a better, less extractive experience for users and businesses. The expansive nature of these proposals and the uncertainty of politics mean that this last section of the book is less punchy but still motivating. VERDICT A funny and enlightening read that makes a serious problem in technology and policy widely accessible.--Margaret Heller
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Upgrading the online experience. Doctorow coined the title word in 2022, comically capturing the zeitgeist-y view that today's internet "sucks." In this erudite yet breezy takedown of Big Tech, the novelist and activist targets deceptive search engine results, new "secret surveillance" tactics, and platforms that are increasingly hard to quit. The 2020s internet is frustrating and exploitative, he writes, because decades of corporate consolidation, enabled by permissive regulatory oversight, has resulted in "the cartelization and monopolization of our economy." Thus occurs "enshittification," under which companies without rivals "deliberately worsen" their services to enrich shareholders, mistreating customers without fear of consequences. The abuse varies by platform. "Once the fear of competition had been eliminated, making Google Search worse was a small price to pay for rising stock prices." Subpar search results compel us to search again, enabling the company to show us more revenue-generating ads. Facebook uses a similar tactic, feeding us "ads and boosted content," along with just enough useful stuff "to keep users glued to one another." Sure, you can quit a platform, but you might lose contact lists or music you've bought. Doctorow devotes enlightening chapters to the push-pull between stockholder-pleasing tech executives and employees who don't "put profit over mission." Empowering the latter, perhaps through tech worker unionization, is key to better user experiences, he writes. The book's final third offers ideas for encouraging competition and "high-quality regulations." He's for "muscular privacy" statutes and new standards that would make it easier to transfer data from one platform to another or use an iPhone without relying on Apple's App Store. Doctorow has a gift for distilling complicated ideas. If we want a "new, good internet," we've got to make Big Tech "weaker." It's a potentially galvanizing argument. A persuasive polemic aims to defang Big Tech--and improve life for everyone else. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
