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The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation
This isn’t a book for people who want to fix Big Tech. It’s a detailed disassembly manual for people who want to dismantle it.
When the tech platforms promised a future of “connection,” they were lying. They said their “walled gardens” would keep us safe, but those were prison walls. The platforms locked us into their systems and made us easy pickings, ripe for extaction. Twitter, Facebook and other Big Tech platforms hard to leave by design. They hold hostage the people we love, the communities that matter to us, the audiences and customers we rely on. The impossibility of staying connected to these people after you delete your account has nothing to do with technological it’s a business strategy in service to commodifying your personal life and relationships.
We can—we must—dismantle the tech platforms. In The Internet Con , Cory Doctorow explains how to seize the means of computation, by forcing Silicon Valley to do the thing it fears interoperate. Interoperability will tear down the walls between technologies, allowing users leave platforms, remix their media, and reconfigure their devices without corporate permission.
Interoperability is the only route to the rapid and enduring annihilation of the platforms. The Internet Con is the disassembly manual we need to take back our internet.
When the tech platforms promised a future of “connection,” they were lying. They said their “walled gardens” would keep us safe, but those were prison walls. The platforms locked us into their systems and made us easy pickings, ripe for extaction. Twitter, Facebook and other Big Tech platforms hard to leave by design. They hold hostage the people we love, the communities that matter to us, the audiences and customers we rely on. The impossibility of staying connected to these people after you delete your account has nothing to do with technological it’s a business strategy in service to commodifying your personal life and relationships.
We can—we must—dismantle the tech platforms. In The Internet Con , Cory Doctorow explains how to seize the means of computation, by forcing Silicon Valley to do the thing it fears interoperate. Interoperability will tear down the walls between technologies, allowing users leave platforms, remix their media, and reconfigure their devices without corporate permission.
Interoperability is the only route to the rapid and enduring annihilation of the platforms. The Internet Con is the disassembly manual we need to take back our internet.
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First published September 5, 2023
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About the author
Cory Doctorow
262 books6,281 followersCory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and
Little Brother
and novels for adults like
Rapture Of The Nerds
and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 171 reviews
September 29, 2023
Back in my day, the internet used to be better. I feel old saying that—I only just turned thirty-four—but it is true. When I first started using the internet in the early 2000s, the web had become functional enough to be fun, the walled gardens of nineties CompuServe and AOL had come down, and anyone (including fourteen-year-old Kara) could make a website for free on a place like Geocities.
And then it all got terrible.
Or, as fellow Canadian writer Cory Doctorow puts it, “enshittified.” But unlike yours truly, Doctorow doesn’t just want to complain about this problem: he also has a plan to fix it! Enter The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, a book-length distillation of thoughts he has been putting out for, well, about as long as I have been alive at this point. Doctorow writes and speaks about enshittification and interoperability (the two main motifs of this book) quite a bit—I recommend this essay in particular if you want a sense of his writing style and ideas before diving into this book. Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review.
Let’s break this down in to the two parts of the book’s title. “The Internet Con” refers to that first concept I mentioned, enshittification. Basically, it means that in the current regulatory climate, Big Tech corporations have a financial incentive—indeed, one might argue they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders—to make their services worse in a way that locks users into them. (As an aside, credit to the CBC radio program Spark for pointing out to me that only tech companies and drug dealers refer to their customers as users….) There’s more to unpack here—which is what Doctorow spends the first part of the book doing—but there are plenty of simple examples. Social networks like Instagram don’t offer strictly chronological feeds anymore (though that might be changing, at least for some, thanks to new EU regulations) because those feeds don’t keep people engaged very long, which means they serve us up fewer ads. Apple has total control over what runs on an iPhone because that locks you in to their ecosystem. And so on. Doctorow attributes much enshittification to weak laws (in the United States, but exported to or emulated by other countries) around monopoly and monopsony.
Doctorow’s solution? Legislate interoperability, i.e., force companies to allow others to play on their playground, to make systems that interface with their own, etc. This ensures users’ data can be portable and also gives companies incentives to make their apps, etc., you know, actually good—because there will be competition. Big Tech is, understandably, opposed to interoperability. Doctorow spends most of the second half of the book explaining how a couple of types of interoperability work, and he gives examples of successes in history—a notable one being how the VHS tape won out over Betamax.
There’s a lot to love about The Internet Con. Doctorow effortlessly moves among the domains of history, law, economics, and more. He provides important context, stirs up resentment, and then proffers up platefuls of hope. That’s my main takeaway from this book, and it feels so necessary in our current climate of ever-increasing prices for worse and worse streaming services, not to mention the walled gardens of social networks. I really appreciate that Doctorow adamantly insists something can be done.
His utter rejection of Big Tech as it currently exists at the apotheosis of late-stage capitalism is also so refreshing. I’ve been spending too much time on LinkedIn lately (one of the hazards of starting a freelance copyediting business, lol). Too many people on that platform talk about “creating change” in tech, usually through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. But then they turn around and embrace super problematic trends, like crypto or generative AI. It feels so rare these days to see a cis white man selling a book that says “down with Big Tech!”
The book ends kind of abruptly. There isn’t really a conclusion; the last chapter is called “What about Blockchain?” and focuses on debunking that as a potential solution (following a series of chapters where Doctorow addresses a single objection or alternative to mandating interoperability). Then there’s a further reading list and an index, and that’s it. I found that peculiar—it must be deliberate, perhaps to send the message that this fight is far from over. Or maybe Doctorow just thought he had made his point clear and didn’t want to overstay his welcome—the book is under 200 pages, and I respect that.
Though some of Doctorow’s digressions into history or economics might require people to reread them a couple of times to fully grasp what he’s saying, his writing overall is super accessible. This is actually the first nonfiction book by Doctorow that I’m reviewing here—but I’m starting to get the impression that I enjoy his nonfiction writing far more than I do his fiction projects. His voice and style in his novels just doesn’t do it for me—it’s far too polemical, too bare, which I don’t want in my stories but love in my nonfiction.
The Internet Con is a book about what is wrong with the internet and Big Tech and, more importantly, provides a roadmap to fix it. Doctorow has been around long enough to understand these problems and advocate for workable solutions. Now he’s explaining it in a way that all us laypeople can understand, so that we can do the work of organizing and, as he puts it, seizing the means of computation. It’s time to get interoperable, baby.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
And then it all got terrible.
Or, as fellow Canadian writer Cory Doctorow puts it, “enshittified.” But unlike yours truly, Doctorow doesn’t just want to complain about this problem: he also has a plan to fix it! Enter The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, a book-length distillation of thoughts he has been putting out for, well, about as long as I have been alive at this point. Doctorow writes and speaks about enshittification and interoperability (the two main motifs of this book) quite a bit—I recommend this essay in particular if you want a sense of his writing style and ideas before diving into this book. Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review.
Let’s break this down in to the two parts of the book’s title. “The Internet Con” refers to that first concept I mentioned, enshittification. Basically, it means that in the current regulatory climate, Big Tech corporations have a financial incentive—indeed, one might argue they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders—to make their services worse in a way that locks users into them. (As an aside, credit to the CBC radio program Spark for pointing out to me that only tech companies and drug dealers refer to their customers as users….) There’s more to unpack here—which is what Doctorow spends the first part of the book doing—but there are plenty of simple examples. Social networks like Instagram don’t offer strictly chronological feeds anymore (though that might be changing, at least for some, thanks to new EU regulations) because those feeds don’t keep people engaged very long, which means they serve us up fewer ads. Apple has total control over what runs on an iPhone because that locks you in to their ecosystem. And so on. Doctorow attributes much enshittification to weak laws (in the United States, but exported to or emulated by other countries) around monopoly and monopsony.
Doctorow’s solution? Legislate interoperability, i.e., force companies to allow others to play on their playground, to make systems that interface with their own, etc. This ensures users’ data can be portable and also gives companies incentives to make their apps, etc., you know, actually good—because there will be competition. Big Tech is, understandably, opposed to interoperability. Doctorow spends most of the second half of the book explaining how a couple of types of interoperability work, and he gives examples of successes in history—a notable one being how the VHS tape won out over Betamax.
There’s a lot to love about The Internet Con. Doctorow effortlessly moves among the domains of history, law, economics, and more. He provides important context, stirs up resentment, and then proffers up platefuls of hope. That’s my main takeaway from this book, and it feels so necessary in our current climate of ever-increasing prices for worse and worse streaming services, not to mention the walled gardens of social networks. I really appreciate that Doctorow adamantly insists something can be done.
His utter rejection of Big Tech as it currently exists at the apotheosis of late-stage capitalism is also so refreshing. I’ve been spending too much time on LinkedIn lately (one of the hazards of starting a freelance copyediting business, lol). Too many people on that platform talk about “creating change” in tech, usually through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. But then they turn around and embrace super problematic trends, like crypto or generative AI. It feels so rare these days to see a cis white man selling a book that says “down with Big Tech!”
The book ends kind of abruptly. There isn’t really a conclusion; the last chapter is called “What about Blockchain?” and focuses on debunking that as a potential solution (following a series of chapters where Doctorow addresses a single objection or alternative to mandating interoperability). Then there’s a further reading list and an index, and that’s it. I found that peculiar—it must be deliberate, perhaps to send the message that this fight is far from over. Or maybe Doctorow just thought he had made his point clear and didn’t want to overstay his welcome—the book is under 200 pages, and I respect that.
Though some of Doctorow’s digressions into history or economics might require people to reread them a couple of times to fully grasp what he’s saying, his writing overall is super accessible. This is actually the first nonfiction book by Doctorow that I’m reviewing here—but I’m starting to get the impression that I enjoy his nonfiction writing far more than I do his fiction projects. His voice and style in his novels just doesn’t do it for me—it’s far too polemical, too bare, which I don’t want in my stories but love in my nonfiction.
The Internet Con is a book about what is wrong with the internet and Big Tech and, more importantly, provides a roadmap to fix it. Doctorow has been around long enough to understand these problems and advocate for workable solutions. Now he’s explaining it in a way that all us laypeople can understand, so that we can do the work of organizing and, as he puts it, seizing the means of computation. It’s time to get interoperable, baby.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
October 25, 2023
Brief, a little schematic, especially in the second half, but makes a solid case:
(1) against both the "genius" (or "evil genius") status its leaders currently enjoy, as well as our misguided notions that tech can save us, or that tech is apolitical or beyond the read of politics altogether;
(2) for attacking tech monopolies with a revival of anti-trust laws (and with other practicable legal, legislative and consumer-driven interventions);
something called "adversarial interoperability" (reverse engineering and making tech work for you without asking permission);
—as well as open-source alternatives to those cozy, dreadful "walled gardens" (ahem!).
Moreover, he demonstrates that democratizing tech isn't more important than, but is rather foundational to, democratizing and revivifying the lives of our democracies in other ways—if we let big tech rule over us autocratically, nothing else is ever going to get better. Doctorow shows that this is not just a pipe dream, that it can indeed be done.
Also, he writes well, and makes what could be an arcane nerd-delight of a subject not only approachable, but empowering.
3.5 stars, only because of brevity. I'll read more of Mr. Doctorow for sure.
(1) against both the "genius" (or "evil genius") status its leaders currently enjoy, as well as our misguided notions that tech can save us, or that tech is apolitical or beyond the read of politics altogether;
(2) for attacking tech monopolies with a revival of anti-trust laws (and with other practicable legal, legislative and consumer-driven interventions);
something called "adversarial interoperability" (reverse engineering and making tech work for you without asking permission);
—as well as open-source alternatives to those cozy, dreadful "walled gardens" (ahem!).
Moreover, he demonstrates that democratizing tech isn't more important than, but is rather foundational to, democratizing and revivifying the lives of our democracies in other ways—if we let big tech rule over us autocratically, nothing else is ever going to get better. Doctorow shows that this is not just a pipe dream, that it can indeed be done.
Also, he writes well, and makes what could be an arcane nerd-delight of a subject not only approachable, but empowering.
3.5 stars, only because of brevity. I'll read more of Mr. Doctorow for sure.
October 28, 2023
A must read.
I really enjoyed how Cory discussed interoperability and R2R by getting to the root cause.
I think anyone who reads this, even with limited technical knowledge, could understand why interoperability is so important, and not just for the sake of convenience or aesthetics, which is how I often see it framed (I.g. Blue vs Green text bubbles).
The section on countries being forced to adopt policies similar to DMCA 1201 just to participate in trade with the U.S. was very eye opening and a good example of the influence the U.S has over the rest of the world, an influence abused by corporations seeking max profits.
I look forward to reading more from Cory.
I really enjoyed how Cory discussed interoperability and R2R by getting to the root cause.
I think anyone who reads this, even with limited technical knowledge, could understand why interoperability is so important, and not just for the sake of convenience or aesthetics, which is how I often see it framed (I.g. Blue vs Green text bubbles).
The section on countries being forced to adopt policies similar to DMCA 1201 just to participate in trade with the U.S. was very eye opening and a good example of the influence the U.S has over the rest of the world, an influence abused by corporations seeking max profits.
I look forward to reading more from Cory.
June 2, 2024
As I anticipated, The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation collects and presents systematically a lot of material that Doctorow has written about on his website pluralistic.net over the years. Thus if you keep up with his blogging, as I generally do, the ideas here will not be new. I still appreciated them being set out clearly in book format and learned more about interoperability therein. Doctorow's central argument is that big tech's immense global power needs to be brought under control, which will be a difficult and slow process. However a quicker way to start eroding would be to mandate interoperability, so that there is a viable exit from dominant platforms and thus some actual competition:
Goodreads is actually an example of this. In theory you can export your library and upload it to an independent alternative, Storygraph (albeit not your friends and followers lists). I've tried to do this several times and can't get it to work, probably because my library is too unwieldy. I'm not happy to be storing my reading database in an amazon product, but switching doesn't seem practical.
Doctorow makes solid points and offers interesting examples to back them up throughout. However this is a brief book so has to skim over a lot. The short chapter 'what about algorithmic radicalisation?' doesn't take its topic as seriously as I do after reading The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World. Doctorow contends that big tech enables radicalisation by making the world more unequal and unfair, which I agree with but don't think is sufficient. What The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation doesn't address is that algorithms optimised to maximise engagement end up prioritising violent and extreme political content, with terrible and destabilising political consequences around the world. It doesn't just put people who already have extreme beliefs in touch with each other; it radicalises. The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World made it clear how to stop this: switch off algorithmic feeds. As that isn't likely to happen any time soon on the big platforms, interoperability would certainly make it easier to opt out of algorithmic social media. It would have been awesome to keep my friends list when I left twitter (RIP) for mastodon.
The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation is a quick and readable summary of interoperability, inevitably America-centric and unable to provide full context regarding the dominance of big tech. While I appreciated and would recommend it, there are various other books I also suggest reading for a wider understanding: Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World, and This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality.
Long before we break up Facebook or Google or Microsoft or Apple, we can offer immediate, profound relief to the people whose freedom of motion is hemmed in by tech's walled gardens. We don't have to wait for breakups to allow someone to install a third-party app, or bypass heavy-handed (or overly tolerant) moderation, or overcome the algorithmic burial of their material. We can do that right now, with interop.
And when we do, we hasten breakups! The bullying that walled gardens enable isn't driven by sadism, after all, but by profit.
Goodreads is actually an example of this. In theory you can export your library and upload it to an independent alternative, Storygraph (albeit not your friends and followers lists). I've tried to do this several times and can't get it to work, probably because my library is too unwieldy. I'm not happy to be storing my reading database in an amazon product, but switching doesn't seem practical.
Doctorow makes solid points and offers interesting examples to back them up throughout. However this is a brief book so has to skim over a lot. The short chapter 'what about algorithmic radicalisation?' doesn't take its topic as seriously as I do after reading The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World. Doctorow contends that big tech enables radicalisation by making the world more unequal and unfair, which I agree with but don't think is sufficient. What The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation doesn't address is that algorithms optimised to maximise engagement end up prioritising violent and extreme political content, with terrible and destabilising political consequences around the world. It doesn't just put people who already have extreme beliefs in touch with each other; it radicalises. The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World made it clear how to stop this: switch off algorithmic feeds. As that isn't likely to happen any time soon on the big platforms, interoperability would certainly make it easier to opt out of algorithmic social media. It would have been awesome to keep my friends list when I left twitter (RIP) for mastodon.
The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation is a quick and readable summary of interoperability, inevitably America-centric and unable to provide full context regarding the dominance of big tech. While I appreciated and would recommend it, there are various other books I also suggest reading for a wider understanding: Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World, and This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality.
September 25, 2023
This book feels unfinished to me, somehow. My understanding is that the "shovel ready" plan is interoperability. But what dirt am I, a humble average dude, precisely expected to put my shovel into? I'm expected to create interop software? Run a Mastodon server? In the section on moderating the awful stuff, am I expected to be the personal filter of sexual abuse imagery to protect the users of the federated server I'm also expected to run? I just didn't grasp what actionable tasks I personally can perform, other than being mad and hoping that governments take big tech to task and that big corporations stop being jerks. I felt there was a lot said about how little power we have, so how am I expected to fight back exactly? Then, just as I felt like a build up had more to say, the book abruptly ends with a (deserved) anti-blockchain rant.
Read
October 26, 2023I listened to this in the car with my partner, who got it through a Kickstarter. I only half-listened to portions of it, so won't consider it a "read book" for my Goodreads goal, nor will I rate it.
I think it's important for average people to know about the scummy practices of the tech monopolies and the walled gardens that they try to tie us to, whether through social ties or even the physical parts in our electronic devices. None of these corporations actually respect users' privacy (personal info fuels targeted advertising and other algorithmic content, after all), or anything else regarding their well-being, unless mandated by law to do so. They will do whatever they can get away with to keep those stocks going up, with the assistance of institutions (i.e. the government) that are decades-slow at regulating them. See: AT&T.
Interoperability--whether of parts or communication--is crucial to the solution, but while some appealing alternatives to big tech are set in front of the reader (or listener), the means to attain them is left unclear. I learned a lot, don't get me wrong. It's useful as a 101 about our current gilded age, and sends a clear message that change is possible. Though it won't be easy, it won't be cheap, and it won't be fast.
I think it's important for average people to know about the scummy practices of the tech monopolies and the walled gardens that they try to tie us to, whether through social ties or even the physical parts in our electronic devices. None of these corporations actually respect users' privacy (personal info fuels targeted advertising and other algorithmic content, after all), or anything else regarding their well-being, unless mandated by law to do so. They will do whatever they can get away with to keep those stocks going up, with the assistance of institutions (i.e. the government) that are decades-slow at regulating them. See: AT&T.
Interoperability--whether of parts or communication--is crucial to the solution, but while some appealing alternatives to big tech are set in front of the reader (or listener), the means to attain them is left unclear. I learned a lot, don't get me wrong. It's useful as a 101 about our current gilded age, and sends a clear message that change is possible. Though it won't be easy, it won't be cheap, and it won't be fast.
August 3, 2024
Doctorow demonstrates how we’re all conned by the big tech monopolies (namely MAGA, no not that one, but Meta, Apple, Google and Amazon) and proposes interoperability as the solution. I like his arguments but not totally sold on his silver bullet. First the big tech won’t fall for that as standardization takes years and MAGA are already deeply involved in steering it to their will in every step of the process. Secondly the stakeholders in regulation and antitrust are highly polarized. This is a good read for raising awareness but i think falls short on solutions.
July 20, 2024
The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, by Cory Doctrow, is an interesting read on the monopolization of the information technology sphere by a few massive corporations, and the anti-competitive nature of these monopolistic entities. Doctrow examines the big payers (Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple) an the methods they use to distort interoperability, and distort markets to reduce business risk. The book is formatted in a chapter on each method, as well as a couple of solutions at the end of the book, focusing on trust-busting, promoting better copyright and trademark regulations, and building systems that are more open to tinkering, and public control and oversight. This book was interesting in nature, and while I felt the conclusions and solutions were not fully fleshed out in this work, it does spark interesting thought, and further reading, and is an excellent introduction or overviewing text for this topic. A really good read.
November 5, 2023
Partly because a lot of things I knew, but only because I experienced them, partly because it is certainly not the first time I read Doctorow's opinion (absolutely agreeable by the way) about the Internet and the 5 companies that hold a monopoly on it, but it took me a long time to read this essay, and I can't even say I understood it all - cryptocurrencies, ledgers and NFTs remain just meaningless words to me. However, this author must be read again and again, both for novels and, indeed, essays.
Un po' perché tante cose le conoscevo, ma solo perché le ho vissute, un po' perché non é certo la prima volta che leggo l'opinione (assolutamente condivisibile tra l'altro) di Doctorow su internet e le 5 compagnie che ne detengono il monopolio, ma ci ho messo molto a leggere questo saggio, e non posso nemmeno dire di averlo capito tutto - le criptovalute, i ledger e i NFT restano solo parole prive di significato per me. Resta comunque il fatto che questo autore va letto sempre e comunque, sia per i romanzi che, appunto, per i saggi.
Un po' perché tante cose le conoscevo, ma solo perché le ho vissute, un po' perché non é certo la prima volta che leggo l'opinione (assolutamente condivisibile tra l'altro) di Doctorow su internet e le 5 compagnie che ne detengono il monopolio, ma ci ho messo molto a leggere questo saggio, e non posso nemmeno dire di averlo capito tutto - le criptovalute, i ledger e i NFT restano solo parole prive di significato per me. Resta comunque il fatto che questo autore va letto sempre e comunque, sia per i romanzi che, appunto, per i saggi.
September 15, 2023
Get this book and read it.
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March 4, 2024This book by Cory Doctorow proposes interoperability as the stratagem to break through or undo the monopolies of Big Tech. He says monopolies ensure user retention not through superiority of product but through lock-in measures without actual user consent. These measures include the difficulty of switching to alternative companies, as switching would have consequences for users that range anywhere from losing non-transferable files to non-transferable social networks. Measures also include killing competition itself by buying out, swallowing or undercutting smaller companies or successful startups. These underhanded measures are harmful, Cory Doctorow says, because technology is the undergirding digital infrastructure that enables our activities and the formation of our communities. Monopolies retain a free hand in using their power for surveillance and control of user behavior.
October 1, 2023
Excelente libro sobre el internet y sus dueños y cómo estamos permitiendo que todo se vaya lenta pero seguramente a la chingada.
January 11, 2025
Cory Doctorow's The Internet Con delves into the tactics Big Tech employs to keep users locked into their platforms while selectively championing values like privacy, openness, and safety when it serves their interests. Doctorow passionately argues for the adoption of Competitive Compatibility (or ComCom) as a solution to reduce Big Tech’s monopolistic grip. By enabling true interoperability, ComCom could dismantle the "walled gardens" of these giants, fostering competition and innovation. However, Doctorow highlights how even when interoperability is legally mandated, platforms often undermine it through technological, business, and legal subterfuge.
The book also examines cases of regulatory capture, where the very entities meant to be regulated influence the agenda, using regulations as tools to stifle budding competition. Doctorow reserves some of his sharpest critiques for Facebook, dissecting its questionable business practices and exposing the duplicity in Mark Zuckerberg’s public statements. He extends his critique to other Big Tech players, including Apple, Amazon, and Google, revealing a troubling pattern of power consolidation that leaves users vulnerable.
This thought-provoking book challenges readers to reconsider their relationship with Big Tech, emphasizing how much control these companies wield over our lives with limited avenues for redress or accountability—unlike public governance structures with checks and balances.
Finally, the detailed further reading and bibliographic notes at the end provide an excellent resource for those looking to dive deeper into the issues Doctorow raises. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand and counter Big Tech’s pervasive influence.
The book also examines cases of regulatory capture, where the very entities meant to be regulated influence the agenda, using regulations as tools to stifle budding competition. Doctorow reserves some of his sharpest critiques for Facebook, dissecting its questionable business practices and exposing the duplicity in Mark Zuckerberg’s public statements. He extends his critique to other Big Tech players, including Apple, Amazon, and Google, revealing a troubling pattern of power consolidation that leaves users vulnerable.
This thought-provoking book challenges readers to reconsider their relationship with Big Tech, emphasizing how much control these companies wield over our lives with limited avenues for redress or accountability—unlike public governance structures with checks and balances.
Finally, the detailed further reading and bibliographic notes at the end provide an excellent resource for those looking to dive deeper into the issues Doctorow raises. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand and counter Big Tech’s pervasive influence.
July 29, 2024
An ode to interoperability, it is equally fascinating and informative to read, Cory Doctorow’s The Internet Con might the first book from Doctorow I’ve actually liked, as I appreciated both his knowledge on the subject and enthusiasm for it (the enthusiasm especially clear in the audiobook he narrated himself). And what’s more, despite the seemingly unwinnable situation and the depressing reality he describes, he is eternally optimistic about it (honestly, it's part of his point that we shouldn't give in to the corporate message that democracy can't win against powerful corps - a pessimistic belief that only serves the corporations).
The only problem I had was that he got a description of a radio boycott situation wrong and that made me wonder if he's getting some other facts wrong as well. But as it was a pretty small error, and that I didn't notice any other problems (which of course doesn't mean there aren't), and that I was really interested in reading on, I continued.
The book contains a valuable lesson on how to make the internet (and the world) more democratic, even if the recommendations for achieving it might be more useful for people who actually have the power to do any of that (as opposed to some rando on a rando 9-to-5 like me), but at the very least it can inform one’s voting decisions and such, and give a better idea of how our world works.
Now if only I found Doctorow's fiction writing as enjoyable as this …
The only problem I had was that he got a description of a radio boycott situation wrong and that made me wonder if he's getting some other facts wrong as well. But as it was a pretty small error, and that I didn't notice any other problems (which of course doesn't mean there aren't), and that I was really interested in reading on, I continued.
The book contains a valuable lesson on how to make the internet (and the world) more democratic, even if the recommendations for achieving it might be more useful for people who actually have the power to do any of that (as opposed to some rando on a rando 9-to-5 like me), but at the very least it can inform one’s voting decisions and such, and give a better idea of how our world works.
Now if only I found Doctorow's fiction writing as enjoyable as this …
January 7, 2026
Really enjoyed this book. Gives excellent examples of how the Internet is broken, and monopolies lock people in to the services they are used to using. Very insightful and further reinforcing why I am on the way out of the systems as much as I can. Unfortunately, it is impossible to completely break free, but voting with money and opting for alternatives is a great start for sure. Would highly recommend this short book, especially in audio format read by the author.
July 6, 2024
I think that companies should, perhaps, not be allowed to do these things.
November 29, 2025
If you were online back in the 90s you probably read the writing of Internet pioneer and former BoingBoing co-editor Cory Doctorow. The guy has one of those early blogger brains with the ability to combine a fierce genius together with a salty and accessible tone. Like some kind of grandfather of Mark Manson. He’s passionate! And his fire singes your mind as you read. No wonder the cover blurb from Edward Snowden calls him “one of the internet’s most interesting writers.” Doctorow opens by pointing out something so obvious that most people miss it: forty years ago we pulled the teeth out of monopoly laws … and so forty years later, after a century of bashing monopolies back into competitive markets, we now have … monopolies again! A few rule a many because, as Peter Thiel says, “Competition is for losers.” So now a very tiny few exist and rule across “pharmaceuticals, health insurers, appliances, athletic shoes, defense contractors, book publishing, booze, drug stores, office supplies, eyeglasses, LCD glass, glass bottles, vitamin C, car parts, bottle caps, airlines, railroads, mattresses, Lasik lasers, cowboy boots, and candy.” Any issue with that? Yes! Tons! It creates “autocrats of trade, unelected princelings whose unaccountable whims dictate how we live, work, learn, and play. Apple’s moderators decide which apps you can use, and if they decline to list an educational game about sweatshop labor or an app that notifies you when a US drone kills a civilian overseas, well, that’s that.” Prophetic! Apropos! Doctorow grew up on the Internet’s Inside so he’s not just shouting from a soapbox—he's using specific and cited examples tearing the Apples, Googles, and Amazons to shreds. He’s had it with the bigs as much Chris Smalls but approaches things from a totally different angle. Doctorow coins the next corporate phase “enshittification”—a viral word he invented in a 2022 blog post, expanded in a 2023 Wired feature, before it became a Word of the Year, and now the subject of a 2025 Goodreads Choice Nominated book for “Best Nonfiction”, along with the requisite cussing poop emoji on the cover. Tell us, Cory! What is enshittification? What do the big corporates do? “First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.” Soooo … will all of Big Tech just eventually die? Well, yes, that is likely. Eventually. But what about all our stuff? Doctorow explains that switching costs prevent us from actually leaving (say) Instagram even if it’s endless new beeps, bells, alarming notifications, and spammy DMs (say) are making the platform increasingly … enshitty. (Or enpoopy, as he calls it in the polite press.) We still go because all our friends are there! And that’s where the Really Big Idea of the book is presented. Because, lo: There is a solution! And the solution in one single word is: interoperability. Imagine being able to plug and play all the different pieces and parts you actually want to use from Big Tech, in the ways you actually want to use them. This is a tight, fire-breathing screed that, if you can hang on, teaches us “what interoperability is, how interoperability works, how we can get interoperability, and how we can mitigate interoperability’s problems.” I was desperate for both a little less and a little more in this book. The book assumes you have a mind as large and fast as Doctorow’s and I wanted him to slow down and simplify for me. Me slow. But I was also itching for more … Notes, Appendices, a meatier Index, as I kept trying to patch things together my own way. This is the first Cory Doctorow book I’ve read but it doesn’t feel anywhere close to the last. The voice in this book is irresistible. I went back online and found so many endless gems in his blog like when he wrote after moving out of England in 2015 after living there for years: “London is a city whose two priorities are being a playground for corrupt global elites who turn neighbourhoods into soulless collections of empty safe-deposit boxes in the sky, and encouraging the feckless criminality of the finance industry. These two facts are not unrelated.” LOL. Such an entrancing voice. If you liked books like ‘Team Human’ by Douglas Rushkoff, ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ by Shoshana Zuboff, ‘The Chaos Machine’ by Max Fisher or ‘The Attention Merchants’ by Tim Wu, you will love this book.
August 2, 2024
This book should be mandatory reading for everyone who uses the internet. Anyone who cares about data privacy is already well aware of Cory Doctorow. He is now immensely famous for coining ‘enshittification’, a term that has increasing currency in the contemporary discussion of tech. This is a slim volume focused on social media networks and ‘Big Tech’. Much of what I read here about platforms and their algorithms and monopolies reminded me a lot of Cloud Empires by Vili Lehdonvirta, a fantastic primer that goes more in-depth on this issue from an economics and markets angle of internet platforms.
What Doctorow does here is more of an autopsy, an analysis of how we have gotten here with these platforms and what we can potentially do. The book’s focus on interoperability was also something I vaguely recalled from Cloud Empires, but Doctorow gives it a proper breakdown here. There is also a history, of course, because any good explanation will contain some sort of history or record of the steps that got us here. Both of these aspects were incredibly informative and insightful, and I appreciate that he is willing to dive into this issue from different methodologies—not just economy, but the legal and political backbones as well.
Doctorow’s writing style is concise and engaging while also being decisive. It is hard to resist the flow of his arguments, and of course I am biased, but I don’t see how anyone could. Of course, tech giants may feel differently. Interoperability would absolutely destroy their bottom line, their profit margins, etc. Perhaps their only hope is that while Doctorow’s solutions are powerful, it is hard to imagine how we could begin to implement them to scale. The internet is vast, and yet much of internet traffic is directed to the same handful of websites. Many people are not concerned in their daily life, even while bemoaning how much Twitter/Facebook/Instagram sucks.
This book is a great primer I would recommend to anyone who has an iota of concern for how the modern internet has become what it is today. We have a fantastic advocate and writer in Cory Doctorow, and my only regret here is that too few people will read this book or even concern themselves with the ideas therein. If you’re reading a review for this, just go read this already! I read this from my local library for the great price of free, though Cory Doctorow also has a great online writing platform at Pluralistic. We must hold Big Tech accountable and remind ourselves why the internet is one of the species’s best creations, rather than its worst.
What Doctorow does here is more of an autopsy, an analysis of how we have gotten here with these platforms and what we can potentially do. The book’s focus on interoperability was also something I vaguely recalled from Cloud Empires, but Doctorow gives it a proper breakdown here. There is also a history, of course, because any good explanation will contain some sort of history or record of the steps that got us here. Both of these aspects were incredibly informative and insightful, and I appreciate that he is willing to dive into this issue from different methodologies—not just economy, but the legal and political backbones as well.
Doctorow’s writing style is concise and engaging while also being decisive. It is hard to resist the flow of his arguments, and of course I am biased, but I don’t see how anyone could. Of course, tech giants may feel differently. Interoperability would absolutely destroy their bottom line, their profit margins, etc. Perhaps their only hope is that while Doctorow’s solutions are powerful, it is hard to imagine how we could begin to implement them to scale. The internet is vast, and yet much of internet traffic is directed to the same handful of websites. Many people are not concerned in their daily life, even while bemoaning how much Twitter/Facebook/Instagram sucks.
This book is a great primer I would recommend to anyone who has an iota of concern for how the modern internet has become what it is today. We have a fantastic advocate and writer in Cory Doctorow, and my only regret here is that too few people will read this book or even concern themselves with the ideas therein. If you’re reading a review for this, just go read this already! I read this from my local library for the great price of free, though Cory Doctorow also has a great online writing platform at Pluralistic. We must hold Big Tech accountable and remind ourselves why the internet is one of the species’s best creations, rather than its worst.
September 24, 2023
This book is Cory Doctorow's answer to what we can do about enshitification (the process by which social media platforms get progressively worse until everyone is having a bad time.)
While I think interoperability is unlikely, it would be freakin' awesome. I liked this book simply for presenting the idea that things could be different, and for explaining why they are the way they are. And as far as alternatives go, we have federation already right now, and people can use it. We desperately need to escape the clutches of big tech while we still have the chance. They already have our data, but we don't have to keep using their wall gardens. Alternatives exist and they are pretty good, we only need to know they exist.
While I think interoperability is unlikely, it would be freakin' awesome. I liked this book simply for presenting the idea that things could be different, and for explaining why they are the way they are. And as far as alternatives go, we have federation already right now, and people can use it. We desperately need to escape the clutches of big tech while we still have the chance. They already have our data, but we don't have to keep using their wall gardens. Alternatives exist and they are pretty good, we only need to know they exist.
July 12, 2024
Doctorow is an interesting thinker, but he doesn't strike me as a practical one, and so I had a hard time determining which takeaways from "The Internet Con" might be meaningful.
He accurately sums up the problems caused by the near-monopolistic control of "Big Tech," but despite his passion for interoperability, it's hard for me to see what we're realistically going to do about it.
Part of the problem is me. I'm at a point in my life where I just want to see my friends' photos and use my Maps app without thinking too much about everything that goes into it. But the tech industry seems so hopelessly captured that opting out seems like a more feasible route than reforming it.
I don't think Doctorow is successful in presenting his case here, but I'm glad that he's trying.
He accurately sums up the problems caused by the near-monopolistic control of "Big Tech," but despite his passion for interoperability, it's hard for me to see what we're realistically going to do about it.
Part of the problem is me. I'm at a point in my life where I just want to see my friends' photos and use my Maps app without thinking too much about everything that goes into it. But the tech industry seems so hopelessly captured that opting out seems like a more feasible route than reforming it.
I don't think Doctorow is successful in presenting his case here, but I'm glad that he's trying.
December 26, 2023
Wonderfully illuminating, scary at times, and unabashedly angry at big tech. Doctorow lays out a fabulous argument with some really engaging and interesting anecdotes. He makes the topic as approachable as the topic can be, but you still need a bit of an intersectional background to fully appreciate it.
Doctorow makes no attempts to hide his opinions and is very open of his hatred for big tech. The book emphasizes the dismantling of big tech a great deal over anything else, but has a surprising amount of solutions set out. It’s rather angry, which is what we need, but there’s a good deal of hope inside too.
Doctorow makes no attempts to hide his opinions and is very open of his hatred for big tech. The book emphasizes the dismantling of big tech a great deal over anything else, but has a surprising amount of solutions set out. It’s rather angry, which is what we need, but there’s a good deal of hope inside too.
June 5, 2025
This books did a good job putting into crystal focus issues regarding the evolution of the tech industry which have been occuring around me for my whole life but of which I only have had a vague, hazy understanding.
October 31, 2023
A great summary of Doctorow‘s work. Beautiful writing style. But as it is a summary, there is not a whole lot of new ideas in here.
February 28, 2024
lots of things that went over my head (i am stupid) but lots of things i will be thinking about for a long time
July 26, 2024
Quick and easy read. Super digestible. I don’t know if that is due to the writing or Cory’s charismatic narration. Great follow up to Chokepoint Capitalism. It expands on some topics that were touched on in that book. Wish we had a functioning government to hold these tech bros accountable, but alas. 🫠
June 5, 2025
Decent content, but needed an editor. Also his take on algorithms not being a primary cause of radicalization was ridiculous on its face.
February 28, 2024
a brisk manifesto on how big tech has made the Internet a fucking miserable shit hole, and what we as a society could do about it
July 29, 2025
An exploration of why the internet is more underwhelming and harmful than it should be.
I appreciate the brief history of how we got here, how titans maintain their grip and a glimpse of how the internet might be wrestled back both by and for a new generation of visionaries to reflect humanity’s true spirit.
It will challenge your acceptance of the digital age as is.
I appreciate the brief history of how we got here, how titans maintain their grip and a glimpse of how the internet might be wrestled back both by and for a new generation of visionaries to reflect humanity’s true spirit.
It will challenge your acceptance of the digital age as is.
July 19, 2024
An interesting read. However, I get the impression that the author is interested in Dungeons and Dragons and polyamory.
November 15, 2024
this is a book for people who want to destroy big tech
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