Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #ComCom
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#Enshittification is platforms devouring themselves: first they tempt users with goodies. Once users are locked in, goodies are withdrawn and dangled before businesses. Once business customers are stuck, all value is claimed for platform shareholders:
pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/pot…
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pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/pot…
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/alg…
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pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/alg…
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Enshittification isn't just another way of saying "fraud" or "price gouging" or "wage theft." Enshittification is intrinsically digital, because moving all those goodies around requires the flexibility that only comes with a *digital* businesses.
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This week on my #podcast, I read #Twiddler, a recent @Medium column in which I delve more deeply into #enshittification, and how it is a pathology of digital platforms, distinct from the rent-seeking of the analog world that preceded it:
doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9… 1/
doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9… 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/02/27/kno… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/02/27/kno… 2/
Enshittification, you'll recall, is the lifecycle of the online platform: first, the platform allocates #surpluses to end-users; then, once users are locked in, those surpluses are taken away and given to business-customers. 3/
#Netflix has unveiled the details of its new anti-#PasswordSharing policy, detailing a suite of complex gymnastics that customers will be expected to undergo if their living arrangements trigger @netflix's automated enforcement mechanisms:
thestreamable.com/news/confirmed… 1/
thestreamable.com/news/confirmed… 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/02/02/non… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/02/02/non… 2/
Netflix says that its new policy allows members of the same "#household" to share an account. 3/
#ObliqueStrategies is @brianeno and Peter Schmidt's deck of 100+ cards, each with a sentence of gnomic advice. They inspired Roxy Music, David Bowie, Talking Heads and Devo. My favorite? "Be the first person to not do something that no one else has ever not done before." 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/11/08/div… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/11/08/div… 2/
Why that one? Because it challenges us to imagine how something that we perceive as unitary and indivisible might be decomposed into smaller units. It's a challenge to the notion that one must "take the bad with the good." What if we could just get rid of "the bad?" 3/
This week on my podcast, I read my recent @Medium column, "View a SKU: Let’s Make Amazon Into a Dumb Pipe," about how interop can help us demonopolize Amazon and tame its market power:
doctorow.medium.com/view-a-sku-327… 1/
doctorow.medium.com/view-a-sku-327… 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/08/01/dum… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/08/01/dum… 2/
To explain this proposal, I need to start with an axiom: there are lots of problems with Amazon (lots!) but the fact that Amazon is really convenient is *not* one of those problems. 3/
Remember when they sneered at Geocities pages for being an unusable eyesore? True, they had some, uh, *idiosyncratic* design choices, but at least they reflected a real person's exuberant ideas about what looked and worked well. Today's web is an unusable eyesore *by design*. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/06/28/bar… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/06/28/bar… 2/
Start with those fucking "sign up for our newsletter" interruptors. Email is the last federated protocol, publishers are desperate to get you to sign up to their newsletter, which nominally bypasses Big Tech's chokepoint on communications between creators and audiences. 3/
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).
Inside: The oligarchs' Supreme Court; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/06/25/roe…
#Pluralistic 1/
Inside: The oligarchs' Supreme Court; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/06/25/roe…
#Pluralistic 1/
Sponsor me for the @ClarionUCSD Write-A-Thon! I'm writing 10,000 words on my prison-tech thriller "Some Men Rob You With a Fountain Pen" and raising scholarship money for the Clarion SF/F workshop, which I graduated from in 1992.
clarionwriteathon.com/members/profil… 2/
clarionwriteathon.com/members/profil… 2/
The oligarchs' Supreme Court: Getting turkeys to vote for Christmas ain't cheap.
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Back in 2019, I wrote a case-study on ad- and tracker-blocking as part of @EFF's series on #AdversarialInteroperability (AKA #CompetitiveCompatibility or #Comcom).
eff.org/deeplinks/2019… 1/
eff.org/deeplinks/2019… 1/
My point was that the ad-tech industry says that it tracks you as part of a bargain: you trade away your privacy and get media in exchange, but that this was a bizarre kind of take-it-or-leave-it form of bargaining. 2/
The ad-tech deal boils down to this: "Just by following a link to this page, you have agreed to, well, *anything* we feel like doing. We can collect your data, sell it, merge it with other data, share it, mine it, exploit it. Forever."
That's not much of a bargain. 3/
That's not much of a bargain. 3/
Gig work companies like Uber and Doordash are committed to misclassifying their workers as contractors, which lets them escape employer obligations like a minimum wage, health care or worker's comp (driving for Uber/Lyft is one of the most dangerous jobs in America). 1/
These companies spent $225m to pass California's #Prop22, a ballot initiative that formalized worker misclassification, paving the way for all kinds of companies to convert employees to contractors at the stroke of a pen:
pluralistic.net/2021/01/05/man… 2/
pluralistic.net/2021/01/05/man… 2/
Hilariously, all that money was wasted. Prop 22 was unconstitutional. It usurped the assembly's constitutional duty to establish universal worker's comp. It was (idiotically) drafted such that if any clause was struck the whole thing was invalid.
latimes.com/california/new… 3/
latimes.com/california/new… 3/
"Innovation" is in very bad odor these days. "Disruption" is even more disreputable. 1/
But as tech and the global south researcher @qadrida writes in @wired, "innovation" isn't limited to inventing unregulated banks and calling them "fintech" and "disruption" is more than just misclassifying employees as contractors.
wired.com/story/disrupti… 2/
wired.com/story/disrupti… 2/
Qadri studies workers who are seizing the means of computation, reverse-engineering and repurposing the apps that are meant to keep them in bondage and setting themselves free. Her research on gig drivers in Jakarta is essential reading:
pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuy… 3/
pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuy… 3/
A historical accident made Massachusetts a lab for studying how tech can serve monopolies, and the moves, countermoves and counter-countermoves show how businesses, tinkerers, governments and the public can liberate themselves from seemingly all-powerful monopolists. 1/
If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/02/05/tim… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/02/05/tim… 2/
It all starts with #RightToRepair. Companies love to monopolize the repair of their products. If the only place to get your broken stuff fixed is at its manufacturer's authorized depots, the manufacturer can move all kinds of value from your side of the deal to their own. 3/
The city of Stockholm commissioned Skolplattform, an omnibus app to deliver timely information to students, teachers and parents. It was a mess: a late, SEK 1B (USD 117M) "IT disaster" boondoggle with a 1.2 star rating.
play.google.com/store/apps/det… 1/
play.google.com/store/apps/det… 1/
If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2021/11/09/skr… 2/
pluralistic.net/2021/11/09/skr… 2/
Among the groups that were poorly served by the app were parents, and among those parents was Christian @Landgren, a software developer. Landgren created a streamlined version of the app just for parents that he dubbed Öppna (open) Skolplattformen. 3/
The @CACMmag has just published my editorial, "Competitive Compatibility: Let's Fix the Internet, Not the Tech Giants," explaining how interoperability was once an engine for competition and user empowerment - and how that ended.
cacm.acm.org/magazines/2021…
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cacm.acm.org/magazines/2021…
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As the title suggests, regulators are fed up with Big Tech's abuses, but they're not sure what to do about it. One approach is to "fix the companies" - like forcing Facebook to fight "disinformation" or making Google filter all user content for suspected copyright violations.
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The problem with this approach is that it's not clear whether the tech companies CAN solve these problems (for example, no copyright filter can distinguish between permitted uses like parody or commentary and infringing ones).
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Last Oct, the @RIAA launched a bizarre campaign of legal bullying against #youtubedl, a free/open library that lets people save Youtube (and other) videos for a variety of purposes, including critical analysis, offline viewing, archiving and remixing.
pluralistic.net/2020/10/24/120…
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pluralistic.net/2020/10/24/120…
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If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2021/08/01/bal…
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pluralistic.net/2021/08/01/bal…
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The RIAA attacked youtube-dl under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (#DMCA1201) a 1998 law that indiscriminately bans helping people remove DRM, even if no copyright infringement takes place.
pluralistic.net/2020/10/28/tru…
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pluralistic.net/2020/10/28/tru…
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When we talk about the internet's problems and solutions, we tend to focus on Big Tech, the monopolizers who dominate our digital lives. That's only natural.
But there's another internet, one that deserves our attention: The Public Interest Internet.
eff.org/issues/public-…
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But there's another internet, one that deserves our attention: The Public Interest Internet.
eff.org/issues/public-…
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If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2021/07/16/pid…
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pluralistic.net/2021/07/16/pid…
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The Public Interest Internet is a "wider, more diverse, more generous world. Often run by volunteers, frequently without any institutional affiliation, sometimes tiny, often local, but free for everyone online to use and contribute to, this internet preceded big tech."
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Gojek is a $10B Indonesian "super app" that combines "Postmates, Apple Pay, Venmo, and Uber" serviced by an army of ojol - drivers - who are subjected to all the high-handed algorithmic horrors that gig workers everywhere suffer through.
vice.com/en/article/7kv…
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vice.com/en/article/7kv…
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But Indonesian ojol aren't helpless before their apps; a legion of toolsmiths produce, share, sell and support "#tuyul apps" named for "a child-like spirit in Indonesian folklore that helps his human master earn money by stealing," which modify the Gojek app.
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As part of her MIT PhD, @qadrida studied Gojek, ojol and tuyul apps, and her account of the grey-market Gojek ecosystem for @motherboard is riveting.
vice.com/en/article/7kv…
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vice.com/en/article/7kv…
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My latest @locusmag column is "Tech Monopolies and the Insufficient Necessity of Interoperability," an essay about the goal of competition and its handmaiden, interoperability, namely, "technological self-determination."
locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-d…
locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-d…
I don't fight monopolies because they're "inefficient." I fight them because they deprive everyone - workers, users, suppliers - of the right to decide how to live our lives, both by eliminating competitors who might offer superior choices and by locking us into their silos.
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A monopolized world is one in which a tiny number of people get the final say over every aspect of your life: where and how you live, work, socialize, shop, politick, love, convalesce - even how you die.
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"Tread," a $3000 "smart" treadmill from @OnePeloton, is a deathtrap. 125,000 Treads have been recalled after the devices injured 72 people and killed a child.
bbc.com/news/business-…
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bbc.com/news/business-…
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Say what you will about Peloton's safety engineering, but never fault the evil genius of its strategists. The company responded to the news by bricking the Treads in the field and demanding $40/month "subscriptions" from owners to continue using them.
bleepingcomputer.com/news/technolog…
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bleepingcomputer.com/news/technolog…
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The pretense here is that the subscription comes with safety software that means that you treadmill will not maim you or murder your children.
This raises an obvious question: why not just put that software into all the existing Tread devices for free?
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This raises an obvious question: why not just put that software into all the existing Tread devices for free?
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Any discussion of monopolization of the web is bound to include the term "network effects," and its constant companion, "natural monopolies." This econojargon is certainly relevant to the discussion, but really needs the oft-MIA idea of "switching costs."
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(If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:)
pluralistic.net/2021/05/24/how…
pluralistic.net/2021/05/24/how…
A technology has "network effects" when its value grows as its users increase, attracting more users, making it more valuable, attracting more users.
The classic example is the fax machine: one fax is useless, two is better, but when EVERYONE has a fax, you need one too.
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The classic example is the fax machine: one fax is useless, two is better, but when EVERYONE has a fax, you need one too.
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#SocialDistancingNow could be the kindest thing you could do - #flatteningthecurve could be life saving!
But it doesn’t have to mean social isolation - Here’s some ideas on how to stay social and supportive…
But it doesn’t have to mean social isolation - Here’s some ideas on how to stay social and supportive…
Sure, some of you might be connected to your community already - great!
But if not no time like the present to start.
(#ComCom peeps are already all over this - @KezNoo @MerrynGott @CormacRussell @PHPalCare )
But if not no time like the present to start.
(#ComCom peeps are already all over this - @KezNoo @MerrynGott @CormacRussell @PHPalCare )
Drop a letter or note into neighbours letter boxes with your details and let them know how you can help.
A meal, grocery drop, loo paper, veggies from your yard, board game swap etc
Maybe you can set up a what’s app group, or street Facebook group so you can stay connected?
A meal, grocery drop, loo paper, veggies from your yard, board game swap etc
Maybe you can set up a what’s app group, or street Facebook group so you can stay connected?
