Did you know that the standard of Google searches has actually gotten worse over recent years? Once you think about it, it makes sense. Highly effective search means fewer searches overall. And fewer searches mean less ad revenue. The financial basis of Alphabet, which is Google’s parent company, is, of course, digital advertising. Which means that undermining the quality of the company’s cornerstone product actually makes money. That’s how crazy the modern internet has become. There are, as the saying goes, many such cases.
Cory Doctorow, this week’s Downstream guest, has a word for this phenomenon: ‘Ensh*tification’. He’s written a book about it, too. In front of a live audience at EartH Hackney, Aaron Bastani sat down with him to discuss it, and the implications of an internet that just gets worse.
Ensh*tification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It explains the destruction of the internet by monopolistic, multi-trillion dollar forces. Silicon Valley, once a source for technologically infused optimism, is now destroying the information space we all share. The internet still brings immeasurable value, of course, but the cost-benefit for society and users is increasingly up for debate. And things are only headed in one direction.
Over 90 minutes, Aaron and Cory discuss the book’s most eye-opening case studies, unpicking the insidious tactics employed by the tech giants, and revealing just how unscrupulous these companies are. Their end goal is, in many ways, at odds with a anything that resembles a civilised, democratic society.
00:00 Intro
04:21 Is the Internet Getting Worse?
09:11 Manipulating Stock Prices
13:07 The Death of Competition Law & the Rise of Monopolies
20:14 Facebook: An Ensh*tification Case Study
25:32 Jedi Blue: Illegal Collusion
27:45 How Amazon Rigs the Game
32:30 Is Big Tech Behind Inflation?
37:03 Uber and the Giant Toy at the Fair
40:03 Why Capitalists Hate Capitalism
45:40 Boobytrapped Technology
49:28 Time for a Post-American Internet
54:59 The Internet Is Swallowing the Real World
59:12:10 The Solution? Seizing the Means of Computation
1:04:48 Open Source Versus Free Software
1:07:50 Is Everything Getting Worse, or Just Big Tech?
1:11:00 How to Stop Big Tech From Capturing Policy?
1:15:20 How to Build Solidarity Among High and Low-Paid Tech Workers
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