The Internet Con

How to Seize the Means of Computation

by Cory Doctorow

No cover — Cory Doctorow: The Internet Con (Hardcover, 2023, Verso)

5.28 X 7.95 X 1.18 inches | 0.74 pounds, 192 pages

English language

Published Sept. 4, 2023 by Verso.

ISBN:: 978-1-80429-124-5

View on OpenLibrary

(9 reviews)

When the tech platforms promised a future of "connection," they were lying. They said their "walled gardens" would keep us safe, but those were prison walls.

The platforms locked us into their systems and made us easy pickings, ripe for extraction. Twitter, Facebook and other Big Tech platforms hard to leave by design. They hold hostage the people we love, the communities that matter to us, the audiences and customers we rely on. The impossibility of staying connected to these people after you delete your account has nothing to do with technological limitations: it's a business strategy in service to commodifying your personal life and relationships.

When the tech platforms promised a future of "connection," they were lying. They said their "walled gardens" would keep us safe, but those were prison walls.

We can - we must - dismantle the tech platforms. In The Internet Con , Cory Doctorow explains how to seize the means of computation, by forcing Silicon Valley to do the thing it fears most: interoperate. Interoperability will tear down the walls between technologies, allowing users leave platforms, remix their media, and reconfigure their devices without corporate permission.

Interoperability is the only route to the rapid and enduring annihilation of the platforms. The Internet Con is the disassembly manual we need to take back our internet.

2 editions

laundry0099@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Review of 'The Internet Con' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

I consider myself pretty well versed in the shortcomings of capitalism, but this book still managed to shock me time and time again with tales of the brazen greed of tech companies over time. It was an easy read, which I appreciated, and I greatly enjoyed the conversational and sometimes colorful tone of writing.

Yet even though the author said multiple times that he would explain how we go about fixing the problems of Big Tech, he never really did. That is, unless I somehow figure out how to suddenly make Congress listen to me instead of a huge corporation, or learn how to reverse-engineer my own social media company. Nevertheless, it’s a great read, and one that more people probably should.

sol2070@velhaestante.com.br reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Essential, but rushed at the end

3 stars

(em português com links → sol2070.in/11/golpe-internet-cory-doctorow )

"The Internet Con" (2023) is the latest non-fiction book by Cory Doctorow, who also writes great speculative fiction.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to call it "con". People are held hostage, abused and only the perpetrators win.

Cory was the one who coined a term that is now common to understand a central aspect of this scam: "enshittification". This suggestive language ended up having a lot of appeal to what many people already feel. For example, using Instagram or Twitter sucks, but people continue because there isn't much choice. Once everyone is a hostage, it becomes a kind of extortion.

The book details the context, the history and the ins and outs of the scam, including many recent illustrations of the antics of companies like Apple or Google, or the complicity of governments in the domination of monopoly trusts which, not limited …

(em português com links → sol2070.in/11/golpe-internet-cory-doctorow )

"The Internet Con" (2023) is the latest non-fiction book by Cory Doctorow, who also writes great speculative fiction.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to call it "con". People are held hostage, abused and only the perpetrators win.

The style is the charismatic way in which the author has made a name for himself, managing to portray even the most technical and administrative parts of technology in an engaging way. (I can't forget a captivating short story from 2007, craphound.com/overclocked/Cory_Doctorow_-Overclocked-_When_Sysadmins_Ruled_the_Earth.html about an apocalypse in the information age, full of technical details and hacker nerdiness, whose protagonists are system administrators!)

Cory has worked for many years at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a crucial NGO in the field, and examples of this kind of activism are another attraction of the book.

The second half of the book is the presentation of solutions, which don't have much escape from government regulation, being the "boring but necessary" part.

Another central theme is also discussed, the interoperability potentially inherent in any computing device, but which is blocked by big tech as a way of forcing their domination. Ensuring our freedom to put our devices and software to use is one of the key technical points in destroying this prison.

In the final third, which clarifies common doubts about the essential measures, I felt that the discussion started to become superficial, as if there was a rush to conclude, given that it's a short book, at 192 pages. But nothing that compromises the book too much.

BillieCodes reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Good

4 stars

Not really a very actionable for the person on the street. Kinda needs "Chokepoint Capitalism" to make sense. Well written, timely given gestures to twitter, facebook, reddit, tiktok, youtube, etc

abekonge reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Misleading title

3 stars

While being a very concise walk though of the systemic nature of the problems of big tech, I found the title: "How to seize the means of computation" and the blurb: "A Shovel-Ready Plan to Fight Enshittification" to lead me to expect some activist-first analysis. Instead it's "solutions" are very much recommendation to congress or government level policy-types. There is nothing in it that tells me what to do. I have nothing against this - the title and the blurb is just misleading. The analysis is very good though. So if you don't already know Doctorows analysis, it's great. Just don't expect any shovels to grab.

Bodo reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Nice summary of the topic

4 stars

This is a nice and concise explanation of the problem that is big tech and a good explanation what is needed to fix it.

Jorge Sanz reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Good intro to everything is bad about Big Tech

4 stars

I was expecting a bit more of depth on this book, to be honest. Yet, is a great review of the many issues of giving away our private data to Big Tech.

Apollo reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Doctorow's Best Explanation of Enshittification

4 stars

The Internet Con is the clearest expression of Doctorow's ongoing discussions around the ways monopolies have created significant harm to the Internet and how to fix it. The explanations of both the problems and solutions are accessible, and the book was a breeze to read.

Nils Müller reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Anhang zu "Chokepoint Capitalism"

4 stars

Cory Doctorows Buch über die zerstörerischen Monopole in der Technologie ist fundamental wichtig, um den aktuellen Zustand des Internets zu verstehen. Auch seine Forderung nach Interoperabilität und der Legalisierung "konpetitiver" Interoperabilität ist richtig und wichtig. Das Buch wirkt aber teilweise lediglich wir ein Anhang zu seinem letzten Buch "Chokepoint Capitalism" und wiederholt dessen Argumente im Kern "nur". Auch finden sich leider - entgegen den Versprechungen - keine wirklich praktischen Tipps, wie Einzelne zumindest etwas dazu beitragen können, das Problem zu lösen. (Ich war da vorab aber ohnehin schon skeptisch bzgl. dieser Versprechungen, weil das Problem eben nicht individuell zu lösen ist.)

Lumii

rated it

May 27

Subjects

internet
antitrust
social media
World Wide Web
Technology Studies
Public Policy - Science & Technology Policy
Privacy & Surveillance
Political Science - Privacy & Surveillance