How ‘Enshittification’ came to define modern tech

Sometimes a term is so fitting amid a murky set of circumstances that it comes to ground an entire movement. And ‘Enshittification’, coined by tech activist Cory Doctorow, is surely one of them. Particularly prescient in 2026 due to the repeated ways technology has come to let us down in modern life––from increased prices for poor services to a rise in deep fakes and online-only brands with non-existent customer care––the term describes the process in which digital platforms rapidly degrade in quality over time.

At its core, enshittification details how the digital services we rely on for convenience––social media platforms, news sites, affordable stores etc––are no longer fit for purpose. And how, instead, these digital services cater to the whims and needs of their most lucrative compatriots, subsequently leaving the lowly customers that they built their whole business model off of to fend for themselves on now largely unusable websites. 

“"Enshittification" is a theory that explains the worsening of the things around us, upon which we depend.” - Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification

The concept first came to Doctorow on a trip to rural Puerto Rico. When looking for somewhere to have dinner, he noticed Tripadvisor’s site content wouldn’t load, but its ads - still - would. He took to Twitter to complain, typing: “Has anyone at TripAdvisor ever been on a trip? This is the most enshittified website I've ever seen.” Almost immediately a movement was ignited. Enshittification has since been named word of the year twice; inspired an entire Black Mirror episode; and has become a globally used term to pinpoint the digital malaise that internet users feel towards a Fast Tech culture built on pointlessly upgrading rather than preserving things that are already great. 

In his new book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse And What To Do About It [released back in October], Doctorow explains how this process occurs right in front of our eyes. He theorises that it happens in three parts. The first sees the company being “good” to its users, drawing people in on the promise of connection or convenience. The second happens after those people are hooked, and the company pivots to being “good” to business customers by compromising its features to benefit their most lucrative clients, usually advertisers, or shareholders. The third sees the company turn the user experience into “a giant pile of shit,” making the platform worse for all to further enrich those at the top. He controversially uses the examples of Amazon and X (formerly Twitter) to ascertain his theory. 

The main crux of Doctorow’s book is honing in on the direct structural failings at play that allow systems like this to thrive. Back Market spoke to the author to discuss how we got here, and whether we’re really all destined for an enshittified future.

What does enshittification really mean? 

"Enshittification" is a theory that explains the worsening of the things around us, upon which we depend. As to what it means, at its most superficial level, enshittification simply describes platform decay.

Why is this pattern, where customers are lured in, betrayed and conned, happening right now? Because, frankly, policy is protecting those at the top and letting them get away with whatever they want. That’s what happens when you allow a sector to dwindle to a bare handful of firms; they don’t have to worry about competitors anymore. That’s the issue at hand here, and why this whole thing is worth talking about. 

Has anything changed culturally since the term was first brought to our attention back in 2022?

What’s interesting is that right now the walls built by American Big Tech to protect and stop the systems they’ve used for some time––such as the anti-circumvention laws, which prevent the reverse engineering needed to demonopolise platforms like the ones I mention in the book––are being looked at in Europe for the first time. That’s the biggest difference between the geopolitical situation of 2022 and now. That, and that we have to deal with Trump now. It's obviously not great that he is president, but when life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla.

“The message of Enshittification is that you cannot solve things with your personal consumption choices, just like sorting your recycling is not going to stop wildfires from burning down your house.” - Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification

Is it possible for enshittification to become extinct, or are we destined to be stuck in this loop forever?

The finance sector has this idea called Stein's Law, which is that anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. Much of my book unpacks how policy change is needed to stop enshittification. But if you ask a political scientist, they will tell you that the preferences of billionaires are the final word in policy outcomes. Because if there's a thing billionaires don't want then they will get their own way. That's why we have the climate emergency, after all. 

Enshittification has gotten so bad that it can no longer be ignored. That’s where we are right now, and will hopefully continue to be––in a space where enshittification will have to change, cease or at least be limited in the future. Abolishing the super-rich and ending their predation upon the rest of us is not a lost cause. Our ancestors did this, and they were no smarter or more committed (or more imperilled) than we are. Policies that protect everyday people against greed and fraud aren't a lost art. 

What is your hope for your book and its impact?

At its core, the message of Enshittification is that you cannot solve things with your personal consumption choices, just like sorting your recycling is not going to stop the wildfires from burning down your house. I hope that the call-to-action that people take from my book is that they have to get involved in politics and in their community. Because one thing we've discovered here in America is that there are a lot of local opportunities at a community level. For example, the question of whether a firm can sell a device where they're blocking repair is something you can resolve on a local level. Several states have passed laws, such as New York's "Digital Fair Repair Act," which mandate that manufacturers have to make repair resources available to whoever needs them. So, this is a big opportunity. 

Do organisations like Back Market and movements like Right to Repair give you hope for the future?

Hope is the word I use instead of optimism. Because, while optimism is fatalistic, hope is the belief that if you try something then you can make things better. That we have a role in history, that we're not its prisoners. I also want everyone to think about enshittification as connected to things like the climate emergency and rising authoritarianism. These are the same phenomena; rich people deciding how we're going to live our lives, unaccountably, in ways that harm us in order to benefit them. 

Things like engaging in the circular economy, and also the work that Back Market and the Right to Repair movement do, certainly help keep the power in our hands… but more needs to be done, and on a systemic level. We have this giant opportunity to disincentivise the rest of the world’s internet, so we can get away from American-imposed tech policies. The willingness is out there, which was a big reason why I wrote the book. That, and because I think it’s high time we stopped allowing billionaires to control everything. Or really, anything at all. 

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse And What To Do About It by Cory Doctorow is available in all good bookstores now.