The Internet Con, Cory Doctorow
The Internet Con, Cory Doctorow
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The Internet Con
How to Seize the Means of Computation

Author: Cory Doctorow

Narrator: Cory Doctorow

Unabridged: 6 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Cory Doctorow

Published: 09/05/2023

Synopsis

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 extaction. 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.
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.

About Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow is a regular contributor to the Guardian, Locus, and many other publications. He is a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an MIT Media Lab Research Associate and a visiting professor of Computer Science at the Open University. His award-winning novel Little Brother and its sequel Homeland were a New York Times bestsellers. His novella collection Radicalized was a CBC Best Fiction of 2019 selection. Born and raised in Canada, he lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kara on September 28, 2023

Back in my day, the internet used to be better. I feel old saying that—I only just turned thirty-four—but it is true. When I first started using the internet in the early 2000s, the web had become functional enough to be fun, the walled gardens of nineties CompuServe and AOL had come down, and anyon......more

Goodreads review by W.D. on October 25, 2023

Brief, a little schematic, especially in the second half, but makes a solid case: (1) against both the "genius" (or "evil genius") status its leaders currently enjoy, as well as our misguided notions that tech can save us, or that tech is apolitical or beyond the read of politics altogether; (2) for......more

Goodreads review by Serena on October 28, 2023

A must read. I really enjoyed how Cory discussed interoperability and R2R by getting to the root cause. I think anyone who reads this, even with limited technical knowledge, could understand why interoperability is so important, and not just for the sake of convenience or aesthetics, which is how I o......more

Goodreads review by Dorin on November 02, 2023

This is a number of well-documented essays that examine the status-quo of the Internet and how Big Tech seized the free flow of information. Cory Doctorow suggests that while the feudal approach to influence in the tech field is not unique to the tech field, it's the easiest to fix and the best way......more

Goodreads review by Florin on September 15, 2023

Get this book and read it.......more

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