Today's threads (a thread)

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: If you build it (and it works), Trump will come (and take it); and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/26/hanged-for-a-sheep/

#Pluralistic

1/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

If you build it (and it works), Trump will come (and take it): Trump wants Big Tech to win, not to play fair.

Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)

Attached: 1 image Crises precipitate change: Trump's incontinent belligerence spurred the world to long-overdue action on "digital sovereignty," as people woke up to the stark realization that a handful of Trump-aligned giant tech firms could shut down their governments, companies and households at the click of a mouse. - If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/26/hanged-for-a-sheep/#as-for-a-lamb 1/

Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net (mamot.fr)

2/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

Hey look at this

* Organized Labor Took a Huge Step Forward When GM Workers Sat Down in Unison in 1937 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/organized-labor-took-huge-step-forward-when-GM-workers-sat-down-unison-1937-180988089/

* How to Tax Billionaires https://prospect.org/2026/02/24/tax-billionaires-california-income-inequality-trump-billionaires-trillionaires/

* “Battered, bedraggled, inexplicably enthusiastic about a bargain flight to Bermuda” https://unsung.aresluna.org/battered-bedraggled-inexplicably-enthusiastic-about-a-bargain-flight-to-bermuda/ (h/t Robin Sloan)

* Understanding the L L M Bubble https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/76c5f9c0-d1a4-4493-b204-bbbdd68fd910/downloads/89583079-d8c1-483f-8988-3c9f5d813d89/HoranAAJ2026LLMbubble.pdf?ver=1771954468213

* Actually, the left is winning the AI debate https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/actually-the-left-is-winning-the

3/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

#20yrsago Florida cops threaten people who ask for complaint forms https://web.archive.org/web/20060218125443/http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_033170755.html

#20yrsago SF editor: watermarks hurt artists and reward megacorps https://web.archive.org/web/20060307172130/http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathryn_cramer/2006/02/watermarking_as.html

#15yrsago HarperCollins to libraries: we will nuke your ebooks after 26 checkouts https://memex.craphound.com/2011/02/25/harpercollins-to-libraries-we-will-nuke-your-ebooks-after-26-checkouts/

#15yrsago Slowly fuming used bookstore clerk seethings https://web.archive.org/web/20110224180817/http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2011/02/this_is_why_your_used_bookstor.php

#15yrsago Rothfuss pledges to buy Firefly from Fox and give it away https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/02/an-open-letter-to-nathan-fillion/

4

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

#10yrsago Disney offers to deduct contributions to its PAC from employees’ paychecks, to lobby for TPP https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/disney-ceo-asks-employees-to-chip-in-to-pay-copyright-lobbyists/

#10yrsago Read: The full run of If magazine, scanned at the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/ifmagazine

#10yrsago Rosa Parks’s papers and photos online at the Library of Congress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=266gn07TUYw

#10yrsago Harvard Business Review: Stop paying executives for performance https://hbr.org/2016/02/stop-paying-executives-for-performance

5/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

#5yrsago Saving the planet is illegal https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/25/ring-down-the-curtain/#ect

#5yrsago Against hygiene theater https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/25/ring-down-the-curtain/#hygiene-theater

#1yrago Apple's encryption capitulation https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/25/sneak-and-peek/#pavel-chekov

6/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

Yesterday's threads: The whole economy pays the Amazon tax; and more!

Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)

Attached: 1 image Today's threads (a thread) Inside: The whole economy pays the Amazon tax; and more! Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/25/most-favored-nation/ #Pluralistic 1/

Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net (mamot.fr)

7/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:

Just a moment...

(us.macmillan.com)

--

My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:

Just a moment...

(us.macmillan.com)

8/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

https://craphound.com/shop/

9/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

Upcoming appearances:

* #Oslo (remote): Seminar og lansering av rapport om «enshittification», Feb 27
https://www.forbrukerradet.no/siste-nytt/digital/seminar-og-lansering-av-rapport-om-enshittification/

* #Victoria: 28th Annual Victoria International Privacy & Security Summit, Mar 3-5
https://www.rebootcommunications.com/event/vipss2026/

* #Victoria: Enshittification at Russell Books, Mar 4
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-is-coming-to-victoria-tickets-1982091125914

* #SanFrancisco: Launch for Cindy Cohn's "Privacy's Defender" (City Lights), Mar 10
https://citylights.com/events/cindy-cohn-launch-party-for-privacys-defender/

10/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* #Barcelona: Enshittification with Simona Levi/Xnet (Llibreria Finestres), Mar 20
https://www.llibreriafinestres.com/evento/cory-doctorow/

* #Berkeley: Bioneers keynote, Mar 27
https://conference.bioneers.org/

* #Montreal: Bronfman Lecture (McGill) Apr 10
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/artificial-intelligence-the-ultimate-disrupter-tickets-1982706623885

* #Berlin: Re:publica, May 18-20
https://re-publica.com/de/news/rp26-sprecher-cory-doctorow

11/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* #Berlin: Enshittification at Otherland Books, May 19
https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/cory-doctorow.html

* #HayOnWye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/big-ideas-2

12/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

Recent appearances:

* Making The Internet Suck Less (Thinking With Mitch Joel)
https://www.sixpixels.com/podcast/archives/making-the-internet-suck-less-with-cory-doctorow-twmj-1024/

* Panopticon :3 (Trashfuture)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/panopticon-3-150395435

* America's Enshittification is Canada's Opportunity (Do Not Pass Go)
https://www.donotpassgo.ca/p/americas-enshittification-is-canadas

* Everything Wrong With the Internet and How to Fix It, with Tim Wu (Ezra Klein)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-doctorow-wu.html

* How the Internet Got Worse (Masters in Business)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auXlkuVhxMo

13/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

You can follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/26/hanged-for-a-sheep/

--

If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is ad-/tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🪰". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

--

You can also get a fulltext RSS feed, licensed CC BY 4.0:

https://pluralistic.net/feed/

eof/

[ddgulledge@social.linux.pizza]

@pluralistic It's worth analyzing the growth of social media platforms through the lens of a logistic adoption curve. It doesn't fit exactly the way it does for technologies whose use is largely private. The nature of social media means that it amplifies the network effect in ways that communication technologies that are used for one-on-one communication don't. As you've pointed out, we form communities on social media that don't also exist in physical spaces. And the communication of those communities persists over time in ways that physical group interactions can't.

The problem that can't be solved technologically is the formation of those relationships and communities. No matter how good an open platform is, the technology can't create those communities. You pointed out that barriers to interoperability hinders migration, probably to the point of being impossible to overcome directly. We get users on open platforms when we invite them to come, help them do it, welcome them here, and give them reasons to visit us more often.

The network effect for social media is amplified when those of us already here create reasons for others to be here with us. It's something each of us can do. We use this platform. And we invite friends to join us. It's quite literally a situation where optimism about the value of what we have can be effective in preserving and growing it.

I've watched enshittification destroy vibrant communities on other platforms. Once people give up on those communities they can't be revived, but they can be recreated the way they originally formed. We can determine where we choose to build them.

I am here on Mastodon. I will participate in building communities here. I can contribute its growth by doing what the technology and policies can't. I can be here.

[hamishb@mstdn.ca]

Breaking the grip of anti-circumvention laws, even if we do it all together, is probably not possible until we have functioning alternatives to the US giants in place, particularly in financial services, but it's still a great goal.

The US may have expropriated Tiktok's US revenues, but can US tech corporations continue to grow and thrive without using most of the rest of the world as it's colonies?

This is a war and we should not be shy about wanting to win.

@pluralistic

[grimmy@mastodon.social]

@pluralistic

> No: Zuckerberg gave the Myspace refugees a bot, which would accept your Myspace login and password and then impersonate you to Myspace's servers several times per day, scraping all the content waiting for you in your Myspace feed and flowing it into your Facebook feed.

I have inklings of a plan for this, but I'm time and cash poor right now so unlikely to happen in the near future. But compile libpurple3 (wip) for webasm, put a front end on it with a service worker and done?