Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #enshittification
Most recents (15)
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).
Inside: Spirit warned investors that merging with Jetblue would be illegal; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/03/12/the…
#Pluralistic 1/
Inside: Spirit warned investors that merging with Jetblue would be illegal; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/03/12/the…
#Pluralistic 1/
Spirit warned investors that merging with Jetblue would be illegal: Exhibit A for the prosecution.
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Hey look at this
* Freely readable 2023 #NebulaAwards nominees superpunch.net/2023/03/links-…
* Why Weren't #SiliconValleyBank Depositors Using CDARS? creditslips.org/creditslips/20…
* Users, advertisers – we are all trapped in the net's ‘#enshittification’ theguardian.com/commentisfree/… 3/
* Freely readable 2023 #NebulaAwards nominees superpunch.net/2023/03/links-…
* Why Weren't #SiliconValleyBank Depositors Using CDARS? creditslips.org/creditslips/20…
* Users, advertisers – we are all trapped in the net's ‘#enshittification’ theguardian.com/commentisfree/… 3/
Back in 2017 Long Island Ice Tea - known for its undistinguished, barely drinkable sugar-water - changed its name to "Long Blockchain Corp." Its shares surged to a peak of 400% over their pre-announcement price. 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/2023/03/09/aut… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/aut… 2/
The company announced no specific integrations with any kind of blockchain, nor has it made any such integrations since. 3/
"End to End," is my new column for @LocusMag, proposing a policy for a better internet: the "#EndToEnd" principle (#E2E), a bedrock of the original design for the internet, updated for the modern, monopolized web, as a way of #disenshittifying it:
locusmag.com/2023/03/commen… 1/
locusmag.com/2023/03/commen… 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/2023/03/07/dis… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/03/07/dis… 2/
The original E2E marked the turning point from telco-based systems where power was gathered at the center, controlled by carriers, to the packet-switched internet, where power moved to the edges. Under the old model, only the network operator could add new features. 3/
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/
In 1998, two Stanford students published "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine," in which they wrote, "Advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of consumers."
research.google/pubs/pub334/ 1/
research.google/pubs/pub334/ 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/2023/02/24/pas… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/pas… 2/
The co-authors were Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin, and the "large-scale hypertextual web search-engine" they were describing was their new project, which they called "#Google." They were 100% correct - prescient, even! 3/
The DoJ's antitrust lawsuit against #Google triggered an avalanche of pearl-clutching editorials from establishment lawyers and economists who argue that such a move is both counterproductive and legally incoherent. 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/2023/02/13/the… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/02/13/the… 2/
These Very Bad Takes are only to be expected, since they emanate from ideologues who volunteered to serve as Renfields for vampiric monopolists. 3/
When George Hayward was a Facebook data-scientist, his bosses ordered him to run a #NegativeTest, updating Messenger to deliberately drain users' batteries to determine how power-hungry various options were. Hayward refused. FB fired him. He sued:
nypost.com/2023/01/28/fac… 1/
nypost.com/2023/01/28/fac… 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/2023/02/05/bat… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/bat… 2/
Hayward balked because he knew that among the 1.3 billion people who use Messenger, some would be placed in harm's way if Facebook deliberately drained their batteries. 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/
In the #enshittification cycle, a #platform lures users with a good deal at first, then it lures business customers (advertisers, sellers, creators) by handing them the #surplus; finally, it takes all the surplus for itself, creating a pile of shit:
pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/pot… 1/
pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/pot… 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/2023/01/27/ens… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/01/27/ens… 2/
When a company is neither disciplined by #competition nor by #regulation, enshittification inevitably ensues. 3/
A fun coda to this. When Twitter brought in pay-for-blue-or-we'll-hide-your-tweets-from-your-followers, they changed the pop-up text for "legacy" ticks to "Verified account. This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable."
However, the literal *instant* I paid $8, the tooltip changed to "Verified account. This account is verified because it's notable in government, news, entertainment or another designated category."
The amount of verification New Twitter undertook to transform the old tooltip to the new one is, of course, zero.
New Twitter trusts Old Twitter's judgments of "notability," but only when $8 changes hands.
The only thing they "verified" was that I had $8.
New Twitter trusts Old Twitter's judgments of "notability," but only when $8 changes hands.
The only thing they "verified" was that I had $8.
Here is how #platforms die: 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. 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/2023/01/21/pot… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/pot… 2/
I call this #enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market." 3/
Last week, @Gizmodo's @lincodega caught a killer scoop - a leake Hasbro's plan to revoke the decades-old #OpenGamingLicense, which subsidiary @Wizards promulgated as an allegedly #open sandbox for people seeking to extend #DungeonsAndDragons:
gizmodo.com/dnd-wizards-of… 1/
gizmodo.com/dnd-wizards-of… 1/
The report set off a shitstorm among #DandD fans and the broader #TTRPG community - not just because it was evidence of yet more #enshittification of D&D by a faceless corporate monopolist, but because Hasbro was seemingly poised to take back a #commons. 2/
#ContentModeration is fundamentally about making social media work better, but there are two other considerations that determine how social media *fails*: #EndToEnd (#E2E), and #FreedomOfExit. 1/
These are much neglected, and that's a pity, because how a system fails is every bit as important as how it works. 2/
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/2022/12/19/bet… 3/
pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/bet… 3/
The online debate over #FreeSpeech *suuuuucks*, and, amazingly, it's *getting worse*. This week, it's the false dichotomy of #FreedomOfSpeech v #FreedomOfReach - whether a platform should override your explicit choices about what you want to see:
seekingalpha.com/news/3849331-m… 1/
seekingalpha.com/news/3849331-m… 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/2022/12/10/e2e… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e… 2/
It's wild that we're still having this fight. It is literally the first internet fight! The modern internet was born out of an epic struggled between #Bellheads and #Netheads. 3/
In Bezos's original plan, the company called "Amazon" was called "Relentless," due to its ambition to be "Earth's most customer-centric company." Today, Amazon is an enshittified endless scroll of paid results, where winning depends on ad budgets, not quality. 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/2022/11/28/ens… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/ens… 2/
Writing in Jeff Bezos's newspaper the @WashingtonPost, veteran tech reporter @geoffreyfowler reports on the state of his boss's "relentless" commitment to customer service. The state is grim.
washingtonpost.com/technology/int… 3/
washingtonpost.com/technology/int… 3/
