Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Nov 25, 2017 20 tweets 4 min read Read on X
All right folks, let's talk about zero rating, provisioning, network management, #NetNeutrality and the convenient myth of the "bandwidth hog"
To understand anything, you must first understand that there is no such thing as a private company that builds telcoms infrastructure with its own money. Every telcoms company is the recipient of massive public subsidies.

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More from @doctorow

Apr 18
This week on my podcast, I read "Capitalists Hate Capitalism," my latest column for @LocusMag:



1/ locusmag.com/2024/03/cory-d…
An illuminated manuscript drawing of two serfs threshing wheat. Behind them is a portrait of a fat-cat type in a business suit, with a dollar-sign money-bag for a head.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-…
What do I mean by "capitalists hate capitalism?" It all comes down to the difference between "profits" and "rents."

3/
Read 87 tweets
Apr 15
Corporate crime is underpoliced and underprosecuted. We just choose not to do anything about it. US corporations commit crimes at 20X the rate of humans, and their crimes are far worse than any human crime, but they are almost never prosecuted:



1/ pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-…
A proletarian-looking figure glowering from between rusty bars. In front of the bars is a capitalist-type guy in a top hat holding a huge money-sack emblazoned with a dollar-sign. He's shouting over his shoulder at the imprisoned prole. A whistle sits on the ledge of the cell bars.
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2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/15/whi…
We can't even bear to utter the *words* "corporate crime": instead, we deploy a whole raft of euphemisms like "risk and compliance," and that ole fave, the trusty "white-collar crime":



3/pluralistic.net/2021/12/07/sol…
Read 24 tweets
Apr 12
Using Amazon, or Twitter, or Facebook, or Google, or Doordash, or Uber doesn't make you lazy. Platform capitalism isn't enshittifying because you made the wrong shopping choices.

1/ A Rube Goldberg drawing of a man using an elaborate automatic napkin, a contraption that integrates a wall-clock, a parrot, a pop-up toaster and other contrivances. The background has been replaced with the 'code waterfall' effect seen in the credits of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movie. The fact of the wall-clock has been replaced with the staring eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.'   Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/12/giv…
Remember, the reason these corporations were able to capture such substantial market-share is that the capital markets saw them as a bet that they could lose money for years, drive out competition, capture their markets.

3/
Read 52 tweets
Apr 10
Here's a silver lining to global monopolies: we're all fighting the same enemy, who uses the same tactics everywhere. The same tools that allow firms to extend their tendrils to every corner of the Earth allows regulators and labor organizers to coordinate their resistance.

1/ Abraham Bosse's 17th century etching of David with a defeated Goliath. In the original, David marvels at his sling while standing astride the giant head of Goliath, which has been severed and sports a notable forehead-dent. The image has been modified, replacing the rock in David's sling with the Earth, and adding a monocle and top-hat to Goliath's severed head.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-…
That's a lesson Mercedes is learning. In 2023, Germany's Supply Chain Act went into effect, banning large German corporations from using child labor, violating health and safety standards, and (critically) interfering with union organizers:



3/bafa.de/EN/Supply_Chai…
Read 26 tweets
Apr 8
Audre Lorde counsels us that "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," while MLK said "the law cannot make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me."

1/  A period oil-painting depicting 'The Defenestrations of Prague,' in which wealthy people were thrown out of windows. This image contains two of these wealthy people, one about to be pushed backwards out the window by other stolid burghers, the other being dragged toward the same window to face a similar fate. Both look terrified. The skyline outside of the window has been replaced with the Manhattan skyline. The wall behind them has been replaced with a green-on-black stock ticker.  Image: KMJ (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boerse_01_KMJ.jpg  CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creati...
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2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/08/mon…
Somewhere between *replacing* the system and *using* the system lies a pragmatic - if easily derailed - course.

Lorde is telling us that a rotten system can't be redeemed by using its own chosen reform mechanisms.

3/
Read 87 tweets
Apr 5
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement; and more!

Archived at:

#Pluralistic

1/ pluralistic.net/2024/04/05/cor…
A lab-coated scientist in a chem lab filled with retorts, glassware, etc. The image has been modified. The scientist's head has been replaced with the head of the Trix rabbit, and his labcoat now has a General Mills logo patch stitched onto the shoulder. The contents of his main beaker have been replaced with a floating Cocoa Puffs logo.
I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel *The Bezzle*! Catch me NEXT THURSDAY (Apr 11) in BOSTON with Randall "@XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then PROVIDENCE, RI (Apr 12) and beyond!



2/ pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/nar…
Image
General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement: If Steve Bannon was a dietitian...



3/
Image
Read 28 tweets

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