A Day in the Life of an Enshittificator

From the Norwegian Consumer Council, a funny video that warns against the dangers of enshittification. It’s part of their Breaking Free initiative:

Digital products and services are steadily becoming worse. Software becomes increasingly difficult and frustrating to use, websites and apps are littered with ads and spam content, and useful features are removed, degraded, or made subscription-only. This is part of a process called enshittification.

Enshittification happens in stages: First a company attracts users by providing a valuable service, often seemingly for free or at an artificially low price. The company then exploits those users to draw in business customers, and finally abuses its business customers and claws back all the value for itself and its shareholders.

Enshittification is the result of a dysfunctional market, where companies have been able to get away with mistreating and exploiting consumers. Consumers are trapped in digital services, potential competitors are shut out, and policymakers and regulators are unable or reluctant to clamp down on anticompetitive, illegal and otherwise abusive behavior. In practice, a handful of tech companies have become so powerful that they do not have reason to fear any consequences.

Tags: video