The Internet Con

How to Seize the Means of Computation

by Cory Doctorow

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

(26 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.

5 editions

Lecturas de Berni reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Lectura fundamental para una revolución tecnológica

4 stars

Un libro imprescindible para forjar una nueva revolución tecnológica. Una revolución que no llegará con descendientes de terratenientes del Apartheid o hijos de clase acomodada que, una vez multimillonarios, se dedican a perseguir a la clase obrera. No, la revolución la harán los usuarios de la mano de agencias reguladoras e instituciones gubernamentales. Como el libro demuestra, esto ya ha pasado y puede volver a pasar. Los estándares son la clave para salvarnos de los depredadores de la tecnología.

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.

Bastian Greshake Tzovaras reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Sibling work to Chokepoint Capitalism

5 stars

After explaining how chokepoint capitalism leads to us being locked in into enshittified walled gardens to extract our money from us, "The Internet Con" expands on this. Drawing on his years of internet & copyright/left related activism, Doctorow outlines how DRM and copyright are being used - i don't dare say misused, as it's been clearly been premediated - to keep switching costs high.

This book makes an amazing case for how interoperability can save us, and why we need to lobby both for proactive interoperability as well as for the right to engage in adversarial interoperability.

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 liest 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.)

faberfedor reviewed The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

Loved it.

4 stars

I haven't gone through an audiobook as quickly as I did this one.

Great exposition for those who haven't been paying attention to what's been going on "behind the scenes" of the Internet. It's my field so I was aware of most of it.

Cory is a helluva reader! Quite entertaining and felt...organic? The writing was good and all that but listening to it felt more like have a conversation with a friend who won't shut up rather than a book lecturing me.

If you're interested in what has become a major social influence you should read this, because these things DO influence your life, whether you like it or not.