# Why everything on the internet is getting worse | The Gray Area

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guOdGIQC3hs
Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/guOdGIQC3hs
Generated: 2025-10-20T12:33:10.139+00:00

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## Quick Overview

The deterioration of the internet ecosystem, termed "enshittification," is driven by platforms maximizing profit by gradually making the user experience worse for end-users while favoring business customers, a process exemplified by Amazon's search results favoring its own products and Facebook's algorithms locking users in, which is why author Cory Doctorow advocates for regulatory intervention to break up these platforms and encourage competition.

**Key Points:**
- The concept of "enshittification" describes how platforms degrade service quality for users over time to favor business customers and maximize profit.
- Amazon exemplifies this by making search results 29% more expensive for advertisers while prioritizing its own products, leading to lower quality results for consumers who search by price.
- Facebook's algorithm degradation (forcing users into Instagram) and the push for subscriptions over advertising revenue are further examples of this systemic decline.
- The author suggests that the government's failure to enforce antitrust laws (like the Clinton-era attempts) allowed this situation to worsen, particularly in digital platforms.
- The underlying economic incentive is that platforms profit from locking users in (e.g., Amazon's affiliate link scheme) and squeezing suppliers (e.g., Amazon sellers paying high fees).
- The solution proposed involves breaking up these monopolistic digital giants or establishing new regulations that prevent them from systematically degrading user experience for profit.
- The speaker mentions his book, "Enshittification: Why Everything Got Worse and What to Do About It," as a source for deeper analysis.

![Screenshot at 04:44: Cory Doctorow uses hand gestures to emphasize the absurdity of platform behavior, stating that antitrust enforcement is a "fool's errand" if the underlying structural issues enabling monopolistic behavior are not addressed.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-04-44.png)

**Context:** The video features an interview between Sean Illing, host of Vox's "The Gray Area," and Cory Doctorow, an author, journalist, and science fiction writer known for his work on technology, copyright, and digital rights. The discussion centers on Doctorow's book, *Enshittification: Why Everything Got Worse and What to Do About It*, which details how digital platforms degrade their services over time to extract more value from users and suppliers, ultimately harming the overall internet ecosystem.

## Detailed Analysis

Cory Doctorow argues that the internet is becoming systematically worse due to a process he terms "enshittification," where platforms initially offer good service to attract users (Stage 1), then shift to exploiting business customers for profit (Stage 2), and finally squeeze both users and suppliers (Stage 3). This results in a degraded user experience where platforms prioritize maximizing revenue extraction over quality service, demonstrated by Amazon's search results favoring its own products and increasing ad density, and by Facebook's algorithmic changes that push users to Instagram. Doctorow points out that this is not a natural consequence of capitalism but a result of specific policy failures, such as the failure to curb monopolies and the repeal of certain regulatory barriers in the 1990s (like the *Telecommunications Act*). He contrasts the US approach, which he describes as favoring corporate interests, with the EU's more aggressive stance on antitrust and digital regulation. The solution, according to Doctorow, is not simply hoping for better corporate behavior or relying on existing antitrust law, which he sees as insufficient in the digital context, but rather demanding structural changes, such as breaking up monopolies or enacting laws that prevent platforms from unfairly favoring their own services or suppliers.

### Defining Enshittification

- The three stages of platform decline are attracting users with good service
- then exploiting business customers for profit
- finally squeezing both users and suppliers.

### Examples of Enshittification

- Amazon search results are 29% more expensive for ads and favor their own products; Facebook algorithms push users to Instagram; manufacturers use software locks on products like printers.

### The Role of Regulation

- The Trump administration fired NLRB members who sought to protect workers' rights to organize, showing the political side of ignoring labor issues.

### The Monopoly Problem

- Monopsony (a powerful buyer) allows platforms like Amazon to extract value from suppliers (e.g., sellers) who cannot easily leave due to high switching costs, leading to inflated prices for consumers.

### Policy Failures

- The failure to enforce antitrust laws, exemplified by the Clinton administration allowing the AOL/Time Warner merger and failing to address the anti-competitive nature of platforms like Google and Facebook, created the current environment.

### A Potential Solution

- The author suggests making it illegal to reverse-engineer software locks (like on printers) and promoting worker solidarity (like the tech worker coalition) to force platforms to compete based on service quality rather than locking users in.

![Screenshot at 00:00: Host Sean Illing recording an introduction outdoors in a yard.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-00-00.png)
![Screenshot at 00:39: Sean Illing interviewing Cory Doctorow, who is wearing large black-framed glasses.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-00-39.png)
![Screenshot at 01:46: Cory Doctorow gesturing emphatically while explaining the concept of shittification.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-01-46.png)
![Screenshot at 03:36: Cory Doctorow discussing the economic incentive behind platform degradation.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-03-36.png)
![Screenshot at 04:46: Cory Doctorow arguing that antitrust enforcement alone is insufficient to fix the problem.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-04-46.png)
![Screenshot at 08:46: Sean Illing listening intently while Doctorow discusses the political landscape.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-08-46.png)
![Screenshot at 13:11: Sean Illing at his desk, holding up a copy of Doctorow's book, \*Enshittification\*.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-13-11.png)
![Screenshot at 30:20: Advertiser content end slate for Hims.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-30-20.png)
![Screenshot at 43:09: Sean Illing holding up Cory Doctorow's book, \*Enshittification\*.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/guOdGIQC3hs/00-43-09.png)