*** Longlist for the FT and Schroder Business Book of the Year 2025 ***
** Named word of the year in US, UK and Australia **
*'Enshittification' will be the most talked about tech book of the year.*
"Enshittification" is Doctorow's word to describe the decay of online platforms. It captures the feeling of a world that is ever worsening.
Enshittification is not a technical glitch. It is a technique that every platform - from X to TikTok, Amazon to Apple, has adopted. First they lure users onto their platforms, then attract businesses who might profit from this newly formed public, and then finally squeeze both for their own profit. Tech giants lure users in with convenience and then degrade their services over time, draining profit at the cost of user experience. In the meantime our public squares have turned somewhere between the mall and a dumpster fire, that is unfit to deal with the problems of our times.
What is to be done? Like a surgeon, Doctorow sets out the symptoms, the diagnosis and the cure to these metastasizing platforms. We need to question the monopolies that dominate so much of our online lives, we must demand regulation and our privacy back, allow for interoperability, and win tech workers' rights.
| ISBN: | 9781836743750 |
| Publication date: | 1st September 2026 |
| Author: | Cory Doctorow |
| Publisher: | Verso |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 352 pages |
| Genres: |
Media studies: internet, digital media and society Consumerism Far-left political ideologies and movements Capitalism Economic systems and structures |
*** Longlist for the FT and Schroder Business Book of the Year 2025 ***
** Named word of the year in US, UK and Australia **
*'Enshittification' will be the most talked about tech book of the year.*
"Enshittification" is Doctorow's word to describe the decay of online platforms. It captures the feeling of a world that is ever worsening.
Enshittification is not a technical glitch. It is a technique that every platform - from X to TikTok, Amazon to Apple, has adopted. First they lure users onto their platforms, then attract businesses who might profit from this newly formed public, and then finally squeeze both for their own profit. Tech giants lure users in with convenience and then degrade their services over time, draining profit at the cost of user experience. In the meantime our public squares have turned somewhere between the mall and a dumpster fire, that is unfit to deal with the problems of our times.
What is to be done? Like a surgeon, Doctorow sets out the symptoms, the diagnosis and the cure to these metastasizing platforms. We need to question the monopolies that dominate so much of our online lives, we must demand regulation and our privacy back, allow for interoperability, and win tech workers' rights.
Enshittification features in the following genres: Media studies: internet, digital media and society, Consumerism, Far-left political ideologies and movements, Capitalism, Economic systems and structures
Enshittification is available in Paperback, Hardback
Enshittification was written by Cory Doctorow and published by Verso
Enshittification has 352 pages
£9.89