Columnist Warns: Internet Is Going Down the Toilet

A few years ago, Cory Doctorow coined a word that took the internet by storm.

Once platforms grow large enough and benefit from “network effects,” they begin prioritizing their business customers and shareholders at the expense of the very users who made them successful.

It appeared everywhere including in NPR’s newsletter analyzing why dating apps are “breaking users’ hearts.”

The American Dialect Society named it Word of the Year in 2023, and Merriam-Webster even added it to its dictionary, despite the profanity it contains, Greg Rosalsky wrote for NPR’s Planet Money newsletter.

The word Doctorow coined is “enshittification.” It describes what happens when internet platforms gradually deteriorate.

For Doctorow, a longtime internet activist and journalist, the term captures a specific process he sees in the evolution — or rather, devolution — of platforms such as Facebook, Google, Uber, and Amazon.

In his new book, Enshittification, Doctorow argues that these platforms follow a predictable pattern. At first, when they are new and flush with investor cash, they prioritize users over profits.

Facebook, for example, once promised not to spy on users like MySpace allegedly did. Amazon and Uber offered incredible deals, which Doctorow and others have described as “predatory pricing” — charging below-cost prices to drive competitors out of business.

Stage 1 is all about achieving scale and locking in users.

Once platforms grow large enough and benefit from “network effects,” they begin prioritizing their business customers and, ultimately, their shareholders — at the expense of the very users who made them successful.