Summary of It's not your job to fix the internet

Overview of It's not your job to fix the internet (The Vergecast)

This episode is a long conversation between David Pierce and author/activist Cory Doctorow about Doctorow’s book InShittification and the wider problem of how once‑great tech platforms “go bad.” They cover what in‑shittification looks like, why it happens (and why individual consumer choices aren’t enough to stop it), the policy and product fixes that could reverse it, and practical things listeners can do or support.

Core concept: What “inshittification” means

• Inshittification (Doctorow’s neologism) describes a three‑stage lifecycle many platforms follow:
  1. Build a product that’s great for end users and lock them in.
  2. Make the product worse for users in order to benefit paying business customers (advertisers, suppliers, etc.), relying on the locked‑in users.
  3. Harvest value from both users and business customers to enrich shareholders/executives until only a minimal residue keeps the ecosystem functioning.
• Examples discussed: Facebook and Amazon as archetypal cases; MySpace → Facebook migration as a historical lesson.

Key takeaways and main arguments

• Individual consumer “voting with your wallet” is insufficient to stop systemic platform harms. Structural, policy, and market rules enable in‑shittification.
• Many practical fixes are legal/political (antitrust, IP/DMCA reform, mandatory portability), not solely personal behavior changes.
• Adversarial interoperability (reverse‑engineering, scrapers, helper apps) and data portability are powerful tactics to recreate competition and give people real exit options.
• The Fediverse, ActivityPub, and local‑first software approaches (Obsidian, PixelFed examples) point to alternatives, but switching costs and discovery/recommendation gaps are real obstacles.
• Founders who want to avoid building “shitty” platforms should pre‑commit by design (Ulysses pact): open APIs, open source, worker empowerment/unionization, product governance that prevents future capture.

Policy and product solutions Doctorow emphasizes

• Make switching easy: require platforms to provide machine‑readable export files (the “follow list” analogy to number porting) so people can move communities and follows between services in seconds.
• Legalize/adopt adversarial interoperability: remove DMCA/contract barriers that prevent reverse engineering and interoperability (so third‑party tools, scrapers, and co‑ops can operate).
• Strengthen antitrust enforcement: prevent acquisitions that kill competition; unbundle vertically integrated platforms.
• Data portability and standard protocols: enforce standards like ActivityPub to let federated alternatives interoperate and grow (so communities don’t have to reassemble from scratch).
• Right to repair / right to modify product users own: stop platforms from making devices and services unmodifiable after sale (parallels with tractors, printers, other DRM‑locked hardware/software).
• Encourage worker organization and governance structures that constrain future bad incentives (e.g., unions, chartered governance, irrevocable open source/API commitments).

Concrete product ideas and experiments covered

• Browser plugins that surface local alternatives (e.g., “reserve at local library” buttons for ISBN/ASIN pages).
• Data co‑ops or neighborhood inventory databases that map UPCs ↔ ASINs so local shops can surface when an item is available locally.
• Phone‑to‑phone “co‑op” handoffs for ride/delivery apps that rewrap a ride as a co‑op transaction if both rider and driver run the co‑op client.
• Para (Para/Pera) — an overlay app that exposed DoorDash tip amounts (unit pricing for gig offers). It showed value for workers but was crushed by legal pressure and capital risk.
• Running your own IMAP/mail server / local first files and syncing them — hybrid architectures where local ownership and cloud access coexist.

Practical actions for listeners (what you can do)

• Don’t rely only on individual consumption choices. Organize politically:
  • Support EFF and join or engage local Electronic Frontier Alliance chapters.
  • Back state right‑to‑repair and data portability legislation.
  • Advocate for stronger antitrust enforcement and limits on acquisitions that kill competition.
• Use and support federated/open protocols and tools where feasible (Mastodon/ActivityPub, PixelFed) while acknowledging UX gaps.
• For creators/founders: build Ulysses‑style commitments — open APIs, open source, worker protections, governance that can’t be easily changed to extract rents.
• Try small product tools that increase competition (browser extensions that find local alternatives, use Shopify or independent storefronts if you sell).
• Support projects and policy efforts that legalize adversarial interoperability and protect reverse engineering for compatibility.

Notable examples & anecdotes from the episode

• Facebook gave people a scraper to migrate from MySpace — after they grew, they made similar scraping illegal.
• Adobe removed Pantone support unless customers paid a recurring fee; old files rendered incorrectly unless users paid.
• Cambridge Analytica: big public anger but most people stayed on Facebook — shows exit is hard without easy migration or alternatives.
• Canada/Europe moving to build domestic alternatives (Eurostack) because of geopolitical concerns with US platforms.
• Jeff Bezos quote paraphrase: “Your margin is my opportunity” — Doctorow’s view: raid platform margins by enabling competition.

Short list of recommended resources / policy targets mentioned

• Electronic Frontier Foundation and Electronic Frontier Alliance (local activist groups)
• ActivityPub / Fediverse (Mastodon, PixelFed, etc.) — protocol that supports server migration and federation
• Right to repair movements and state legislation
• Antitrust / break‑up prescriptions (references to Zephyr Teachout’s Break ’Em Up)
• Developer tactics: browser plugins, open APIs, co‑op software projects

Final framing

• Doctorow’s core message: the internet’s problems are structural. The solution mix must include legal/policy reform, open protocols, technical creativity (adversarial interoperability), and organizational commitments (for founders and workers). Individual consumer choices help but do not solve systemic capture and monopolization.
• There are realistic technical and legal levers that can reduce in‑shittification if people and policymakers act — portability, lawful reverse engineering, and interoperable protocols top the list.

If you want a short takeaway: stop thinking of "quitting Amazon/Facebook" as the only fix. Push for portability, interoperability, and legal changes that let competition and coop/alternative apps thrive — and support groups (like EFF) doing that policy work.