Narrator: They didn’t.
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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Enshittification
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What is enshittification?
The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source
The lifecycle of Big Internet
We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.
Embrace, extend and extinguish
We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.
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I'd bet my retirement on "they didn't".
Everyone thinks they can leverage trump for their own agenda because he's a wildcard. But unless you're directly putting money toward his whatever you're very unlikely to get the result you want. And even if you do send money his way, there's a pretty good chance he'll turn on your at some point.
That isn't what the article is proposing. The premise is that Trump's tariffs and policies have functionally brought into reality the only action that previously acted as threats to keep other countries from reverse engineering American tech and creating solutions to de-shittify products and services. If the threats are no longer valid, there's nothing stopping them from doing so, and providing better versions of existing products, or products that remove the enshittification from the existing options.
In short, they aren't calling on Trump to take action, they're calling on others to leverage the actions Trump has already taken.
Ah, you mean like how some countries that were previously COMPLETELY under the thumb of the US and seemingly happy about it are finally starting to disentangle themselves a tiny bit because the fascist kakistocracy makes even the appearance of cooperation unfeasible?
That too but the article is more focused on how before the US would threaten countries with unreasonable tariffs if they didn't comply and let US tech giants rule. Well...Trump already levied unreasonable tariffs, so if they are already hit with tarrifs, why not just created their.own versions of the solutions? Why not ban X and Grok?
Obviously Cory takes an optimistic view of what could be done. The way I look at it is that more and more countries will take a Chinese approach to tech and go for a total control over what we can do online and visibility (no privacy) into everything.
I’m reminded of the XKCD toon about competing standards. Seems like we’re about to have some new ones!
You could just add a period after "end" and stop the headline there.
I guess Cory didn't see the CES shit show this year.
AI fridges with voice command door opening that couldn't work unless there was total silence, then it plays you ads.
A fridge is, and should remain, a box that stays cold.
How is anyone still putting their hopes in this guy...
Edit: holy shit, I missed the author of this article isn't just some random stooge, it is Cory Doctorow! The dude coining the term enshittification, and even this guy falls for thinking Trump will be on his side. Jeez...
some other actor outside US wouldn’t do exactly the same with data as US companies
Would if they could, but ….. the key is going from a dominant corporatocracy to more diffuse centers of technology.
Think of the common charger regulations. We here in the US would still be tied to proprietary chargers at excessive prices, but we have USB-C because EU is big enough
Or think of something as basic as encryption. Not too many years ago, US dominated encryption technology and only the simplest was allowed worldwide. That basically created encryption technology centers in Israel and Ireland, and now we all benefit