pluralistic-net

The article argues that while Big Tech has merged with the Trump administration and global antitrust enforcement has weakened, U.S. state attorneys general can use federal antitrust laws to take on tech giants. It suggests that states should collaborate with international enforcers, who share the same legal frameworks, to hold companies like Meta and Google accountable.

Cory Doctorow argues that understanding computers at multiple abstraction levels—from cardboard CARDiac to BASIC code to modern "vibe coding"—builds "legibility" and Fingerspitzengefühl essential for problem-solving, and that automated code tools serve as a funnel for cultivating deeper technical skills.

Cory Doctorow argues that AI coding paradoxes resolve when distinguishing "today's task" code from "accretive work." Drawing on the concept of "canonization," he explains that while personal, disposable code has value, the AI industry's focus on reverse centaurs consumes software canon without replenishing it.

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.

Cory Doctorow reviews Jo Walton's "Everybody's Perfect," a novel set in a misty, belief-driven phantom Venice called the Serenissima where eight parallel human races coexist. Structured as multiple first-person accounts, it blends dream logic, philosophical speculation, and emotional depth.

Google's AI search summaries have become popular because Google deliberately degraded its search results and the open web to boost ad revenue, a process called "enshittification." The company broke the symbiotic bargain with publishers, prioritizing spam sites and killing ad-blocking, turning itself from a neutral conduit into a parasitic walled garden.

Meta is escalating legal action against whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, seeking millions in damages for promoting her bestselling memoir. After she remained silent onstage at a festival to comply with an arbitrator's order, Meta still claimed a breach. Wynn-Williams has now sued to invalidate her contract.

Cory Doctorow argues that jailbreaking devices is not "theft of IP" but a key tool for Canadian digital sovereignty. He notes Apple was founded on selling phone-fraud devices yet now profits from laws that criminalize competing products. Legalizing jailbreaking, he says, could reduce reliance on US tech platforms and generate billions.

"Age verification" laws are actually mass surveillance that would make privacy illegal, playing into Big Tech's hands. The author argues online harms to kids stem from surveillance, and the solution is privacy protections, not tracking mandates that could later be used for immigration enforcement.

President Lula pushed through a 40-hour, five-day workweek in Brazil, ending the 6x1 system for millions. The bill passed 461-19 as even opponents feared opposing it. The article celebrates this "good politics" of tangible improvements to people's lives.

Author Cory Doctorow reveals he was repeatedly invited to pay thousands to join Dialog, a secret society linked to Peter Thiel. He explains this violates "Yog's Law" (money flows toward the creator) and suggests many members may have fallen for this scheme.

Doctorow argues that pyramid schemes like Amway operate as a "big con" where everyone pretends to succeed. He draws parallels to Trump, Musk, and Zuckerberg, claiming their wealth comes from cons and subsidies, not business acumen, with AI and the metaverse being the latest swindles.

The article argues AI sovereignty risk is fake, using the formula: if digital sovereignty + AI = digital sovereignty – AI, then AI = 0. Real threats are U.S. control over Office 365, iPhones, and tractors, not AI tools. National AI investment does nothing to protect against these kill switches.

Cory Doctorow argues the real "dead economy" is markets shifting capital from productive work into speculative bubbles, citing Musk's post-2020 flops and defunding cancer research for AI data centers. The risk isn't AI replacing jobs, but bosses replacing workers with defective chatbots sold by hype.

Mark Carney campaigns on popular progressive policies but fails to implement them, cutting competition and consumer protections instead. The article argues Carneyism itself is sound, but Carney undermines it through austerity and capitulation to US pressure.

Cory Doctorow reviews Molly Crabapple's "Here Where We Live Is Our Country," a history of the Jewish Labor Bund that contrasts its socialist universalism with Zionism. Doctorow argues the Bund was failed by the world, not a failure itself, and calls the book essential for understanding Jewish radical history and the genocide in Gaza.

Cory Doctorow examines Brian Eno's theory that art is defined by intent to evoke feeling, contrasting it with AI-generated content that lacks intent. He explores how abstraction and explicit narrative differently affect emotional intensity and fidelity in art, concluding that art's success is measured by excitement, akin to falsifiability in science.

Cory Doctorow compares AI chatbots to Disney's Mission: Space ride, arguing both can surface rare latent vulnerabilities—heart defects in riders, psychological delusions in chatbot users. He warns that even rare harms from widely deployed technology require safeguards, and calls for systems designed to "fail well."

Cory Doctorow argues that computers force us to make tacit knowledge explicit, revealing society's broken assumptions. He cautions against granting machines personhood just because AI can replicate creative behaviors, comparing it to the error of corporate personhood. Instead, AI should refine our understanding of humanity, not expand the definition of person to include machines.

Doctorow argues that the AI industry overwhelms critics with a "Gish Gallop" of unfounded claims, making focused critique nearly impossible. He stresses that AI's terrible and worsening unit economics must be addressed before discussing hypothetical future benefits like curing cancer or solving climate change.

Cory Doctorow reviews Naomi Kritzer's new thriller "Obstetrix," about an obstetrician kidnapped by a fertility-obsessed Christian cult after serving time for performing a life-saving abortion. The review praises the novel's tense, claustrophobic depiction of life inside a high-demand cult and calls it a read-in-one-sitting thriller that illuminates the workings of patriarchy and religion.

Drawing on a customer rage survey and Stephen King's Dark Tower series, the author argues that the decay in services and products is a systemic collapse from monopolies and deregulation, not mere nostalgia. The solution is collective political action—unions, local politics, advocacy—not consumer choices.

Google's new reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification uses a phone's camera and secure hardware to remotely attest device configuration, potentially blocking de-Googled Android alternatives, ad-blockers, and accessibility tools. Critics say it is as dangerous as the abandoned Web Environment Integrity proposal, representing another technical lockdown to complement Google's anticompetitive practices.

Cory Doctorow critiques Milton Friedman's shareholder supremacy doctrine, arguing that the standard of "maximizing shareholder value" is actually unfalsifiable and subjective, not the objective bright-line test Friedman claimed. He contends that the ambiguity of this standard serves as a convenient excuse for corporate leaders to justify cruelty and cowardice under the guise of fiduciary duty.

Cory Doctorow argues that "vibe coding" with AI is valuable for creating personal, amateur software that meets individual needs, contrasting this with the AI industry's focus on replacing production workers. He links this vision to cyberpunk's dual ethos of empowerment and caution against centralized control.

Cryptocurrency's "not your keys, not your wallet" ethos leaves holders vulnerable to violent physical attacks and irreversible theft, while public ledgers make de-anonymization easier over time. Unlike cryptography, which supports privacy and political organizing, crypto replaces regulated banks with unregulated platforms, creating extreme personal danger without traditional protections.

Doctorow argues that AI investment is fueled by a billionaire fantasy of a world without people—workers, migrants, artists, and friends—who resist serving their priorities. This solipsistic drive aims to replace humans with obedient chatbots and agents, reducing the rest of humanity to a surplus "unnecessariat" dependent on automation owners.

Unlike the early web, which workers eagerly adopted and forced onto bosses, today's AI requires bosses to force usage onto reluctant workers and young people. Doctorow argues AI has "dogshit unit economics," becoming less profitable per user, the opposite of the web's trajectory.

Ad-tech companies lie to users and advertisers alike, defrauding both. Examples include carmakers falsely claiming genetic or sexual data, and Cox Media's debunked "Active Listening" product. The article argues that even paying customers are still treated as the product in the surveillance industry.

Doctorow argues that "voting with your wallet" is not real politics, as individual consumption choices favor the wealthy and cannot drive systemic change. He contrasts shopping with effective boycotts like the Montgomery bus boycott, which succeeded through organized solidarity, not isolated purchases. Politics requires collective action and community, while shopping alone undermines those bonds.