Pluralistic: Technocarcinization (01 Jul 2026)
Cory Doctorow describes "technocarcinization" as the trend of Apple and Google adopting Facebook-like surveillance and control. He argues this is driven by a policy environment rewarding enshittification, and recommends free and open source software as the remaining alternative.
Background
Cory Doctorow is a prominent tech journalist, activist, and science fiction author who coined the term "enshittification" to describe how digital platforms decay as they prioritize profit over users.
"Carcinization" is a real evolutionary biology term for the tendency of crustaceans to evolve into crab-like forms across different environments.
The essay argues that all major tech platforms are converging into a single toxic model: maximum surveillance of users combined with maximum control over what users can do with their own devices. Once, Apple and Google had different trade-offs (Apple locked you in but protected your privacy; Google let you roam but spied on you). Now both are adopting each other's worst features and becoming indistinguishable from Facebook.
The piece asserts this isn't driven by who runs these companies (psychopaths vs. bland executives) but by a policy environment that rewards enshittification. The suggested alternative is switching to free/open-source software like Linux, which remains in the low-surveillance/low-control quadrant.