Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: If you build it (and it works), Trump will come (and take it); and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2026/02/26/han…
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Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: If you build it (and it works), Trump will come (and take it); and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2026/02/26/han…
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Domestic Supply
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •It's worth analyzing the growth of social media platforms through the lens of a logistic adoption curve. It doesn't fit exactly the way it does for technologies whose use is largely private. The nature of social media means that it amplifies the network effect in ways that communication technologies that are used for one-on-one communication don't. As you've pointed out, we form communities on social media that don't also exist in physical spaces. And the communication of those communities persists over time in ways that physical group interactions can't.
The problem that can't be solved technologically is the formation of those relationships and communities. No matter how good an open platform is, the technology can't create those communities. You pointed out that barriers to interoperability hinders migration, probably to the point of being impossible to overcome directly. We get users on open platforms when we invite them to come, help them do it, welcome them here, and give them reasons to visit us more often.
The network effect for social media is amplified when t
... Show more...It's worth analyzing the growth of social media platforms through the lens of a logistic adoption curve. It doesn't fit exactly the way it does for technologies whose use is largely private. The nature of social media means that it amplifies the network effect in ways that communication technologies that are used for one-on-one communication don't. As you've pointed out, we form communities on social media that don't also exist in physical spaces. And the communication of those communities persists over time in ways that physical group interactions can't.
The problem that can't be solved technologically is the formation of those relationships and communities. No matter how good an open platform is, the technology can't create those communities. You pointed out that barriers to interoperability hinders migration, probably to the point of being impossible to overcome directly. We get users on open platforms when we invite them to come, help them do it, welcome them here, and give them reasons to visit us more often.
The network effect for social media is amplified when those of us already here create reasons for others to be here with us. It's something each of us can do. We use this platform. And we invite friends to join us. It's quite literally a situation where optimism about the value of what we have can be effective in preserving and growing it.
I've watched enshittification destroy vibrant communities on other platforms. Once people give up on those communities they can't be revived, but they can be recreated the way they originally formed. We can determine where we choose to build them.
I am here on Mastodon. I will participate in building communities here. I can contribute its growth by doing what the technology and policies can't. I can be here.
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
If you build it (and it works), Trump will come (and take it): Trump wants Big Tech to win, not to play fair.
mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11613655…
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Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)
Cory Doctorow (Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Hey look at this
* Organized Labor Took a Huge Step Forward When GM Workers Sat Down in Unison in 1937 smithsonianmag.com/history/org…
* How to Tax Billionaires prospect.org/2026/02/24/tax-bi…
* “Battered, bedraggled, inexplicably enthusiastic about a bargain flight to Bermuda” unsung.aresluna.org/battered-b… (h/t Robin Sloan)
* Understanding the L L M Bubble img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/76c5f…
* Actually, the left is winning the AI debate bloodinthemachine.com/p/actual…
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Organized Labor Took a Huge Step Forward When GM Workers Sat Down in Unison in 1937
Luke Savage (Smithsonian Magazine)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
#20yrsago Florida cops threaten people who ask for complaint forms web.archive.org/web/2006021812…
#20yrsago SF editor: watermarks hurt artists and reward megacorps web.archive.org/web/2006030717…
#15yrsago HarperCollins to libraries: we will nuke your ebooks after 26 checkouts memex.craphound.com/2011/02/25…
#15yrsago Slowly fuming used bookstore clerk seethings web.archive.org/web/2011022418…
#15yrsago Rothfuss pledges to buy Firefly from Fox and give it away blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/…
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CBS 4 - South Florida's Source for Breaking News, Weather, and Sports: Police Station Intimidation-Parts 1 and 2
web.archive.orgCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
#10yrsago Disney offers to deduct contributions to its PAC from employees’ paychecks, to lobby for TPP arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…
#10yrsago Read: The full run of If magazine, scanned at the Internet Archive archive.org/details/ifmagazine
#10yrsago Rosa Parks’s papers and photos online at the Library of Congress youtube.com/watch?v=266gn07TUY…
#10yrsago Harvard Business Review: Stop paying executives for performance hbr.org/2016/02/stop-paying-ex…
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Stop Paying Executives for Performance
Dan Cable (Harvard Business Review)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
#5yrsago Saving the planet is illegal pluralistic.net/2021/02/25/rin…
#5yrsago Against hygiene theater pluralistic.net/2021/02/25/rin…
#1yrago Apple's encryption capitulation pluralistic.net/2025/02/25/sne…
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Pluralistic: 25 Feb 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.netCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Yesterday's threads: The whole economy pays the Amazon tax; and more!
mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11613103…
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Cory Doctorow
2026-02-25 11:29:08
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
us.macmillan.com/books/9781250…
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My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
us.macmillan.com/books/9780374…
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Book details - Macmillan Publishers
MacmillanCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
craphound.com/shop/
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Craphound Shop
Craphound ShopCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Upcoming appearances:
* #Oslo (remote): Seminar og lansering av rapport om «enshittification», Feb 27
forbrukerradet.no/siste-nytt/d…
* #Victoria: 28th Annual Victoria International Privacy & Security Summit, Mar 3-5
rebootcommunications.com/event…
* #Victoria: Enshittification at Russell Books, Mar 4
eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-…
* #SanFrancisco: Launch for Cindy Cohn's "Privacy's Defender" (City Lights), Mar 10
citylights.com/events/cindy-co…
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(NB: Fullt) Seminar og lansering av rapport om "enshittification"
Andreas Framnes (Forbrukerrådet)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #Barcelona: Enshittification with Simona Levi/Xnet (Llibreria Finestres), Mar 20
llibreriafinestres.com/evento/…
* #Berkeley: Bioneers keynote, Mar 27
conference.bioneers.org/
* #Montreal: Bronfman Lecture (McGill) Apr 10
eventbrite.ca/e/artificial-int…
* #Berlin: Re:publica, May 18-20
re-publica.com/de/news/rp26-sp…
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Bioneers 2026 Conference - Bioneers Conference
Bioneers ConferenceCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #Berlin: Enshittification at Otherland Books, May 19
otherland-berlin.de/de/event-d…
* #HayOnWye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
howthelightgetsin.org/festival…
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Cory Doctorow im Wasserturm Kreuzberg präsentiert von Otherland - Otherland Buchhandlung Berlin
www.otherland-berlin.deCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Recent appearances:
* Making The Internet Suck Less (Thinking With Mitch Joel)
sixpixels.com/podcast/archives…
* Panopticon :3 (Trashfuture)
patreon.com/posts/panopticon-3…
* America's Enshittification is Canada's Opportunity (Do Not Pass Go)
donotpassgo.ca/p/americas-ensh…
* Everything Wrong With the Internet and How to Fix It, with Tim Wu (Ezra Klein)
nytimes.com/2026/02/06/opinion…
* How the Internet Got Worse (Masters in Business)
youtube.com/watch?v=auXlkuVhxM…
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Making The Internet Suck Less With Cory Doctorow - TWMJ #1024 - Thinking With Mitch Joel, Formerly Six Pixels of Separation
Mitch Joel (Thinking With Mitch Joel, Formerly Six Pixels of Separation)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
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Pluralistic: If you build it (and it works), Trump will come (and take it) (26 Feb 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.netHamish Buchanan
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Breaking the grip of anti-circumvention laws, even if we do it all together, is probably not possible until we have functioning alternatives to the US giants in place, particularly in financial services, but it's still a great goal.
The US may have expropriated Tiktok's US revenues, but can US tech corporations continue to grow and thrive without using most of the rest of the world as it's colonies?
This is a war and we should not be shy about wanting to win.
@pluralistic
Gary "grim" Kramlich
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •> No: Zuckerberg gave the Myspace refugees a bot, which would accept your Myspace login and password and then impersonate you to Myspace's servers several times per day, scraping all the content waiting for you in your Myspace feed and flowing it into your Facebook feed.
I have inklings of a plan for this, but I'm time and cash poor right now so unlikely to happen in the near future. But compile libpurple3 (wip) for webasm, put a front end on it with a service worker and done?
Cory Doctorow reshared this.