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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Bubbles are REALLY evil; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/05/07/dump-the-pumpers/

#Pluralistic

The royal carriage of king Louis Philippe is burned in front of the Chateau d'eau during the French revolution of 1848, Paris 24th February 1848.

https://pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: Bubbles are REALLY evil (07 May 2026)

#Pluralistic

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Replies: 14

Boosts: 1

CaliCarol

@jawarajabbi@mastodon.online · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

@pluralistic

As usual, Mr. Doctorow does not mince words.

#AIBubble #AI

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

I'm coming to #Guelph, Ontario TOMORROW (May 😄 to deliver the Musagetes Lecture:

https://riverrun.ca/whats-on/guelph-lecture-on-being-2026/

River Run Centre

Guelph Lecture—On Being

Presented by ArtsEverywhere Festival The 2026 Guelph Lecture—On Being will be presented by Cory Doctorow on the “enshittification” of the internet. The keynote lecture will explore how we can…

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

Bubbles are REALLY evil: Bernie Ebbers got what was coming to him.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116532300697071646

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

Hey look at this

* Appearing Productive in The Workplace https://nooneshappy.com/article/appearing-productive-in-the-workplace/

* Unsolicited https://www.jennyvolvovski.com/category/unsolicited

* Half of Labour’s Voters Set to Abandon Party in England as Keir Starmer’s ‘London Wall’ Crumbles https://bylinetimes.com/2026/05/06/exclusive-poll-half-of-labours-voters-set-to-abandon-party-in-england-as-keir-starmers-london-wall-crumbles/

* Am I Meant To Be Impressed? https://www.wheresyoured.at/am-i-meant-to-be-impressed/

* Froth is a small live lexical language for programmable devices https://frothlang.org/

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At

Am I Meant To Be Impressed?

If you liked this piece, please subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $70 a year, or $7 a month, and in return you get a weekly newsletter that’s usually anywhere from 5,000 to 18,000 words, including vast, detailed analyses of NVIDIA, Anthropic and OpenAI’s finances,

Byline Times

Exclusive Poll: Half of Labour's Voters Set to Abandon Party in England as Keir Starmer’s 'London Wall' Crumbles

Support for Labour and the Conservatives set to fall severely at Thursday's local elections, as Reform and the Greens make gains, an exclusive Omnisis poll for Byline Times suggests

Unsolicited / Jenny Volvovski

Jenny Volvovski is a designer by day and asleep by night.

No One's Happy

Appearing Productive in The Workplace — No One's Happy

AI can produce work that looks expert without being expert. The failure arrives in two shapes, and both are reshaping the workplace.

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

#20yrsago Judge mocks FCC’s legal argument for wiretapping VoIP https://web.archive.org/web/20060512141440/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004638.php

#20yrsago Podcasting saved from the UN — for now https://web.archive.org/web/20060603152220/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004637.php

#15yrsago Two billion people and the royal wedding: pretty damned unlikely https://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2011/05/06/2-billion-viewers/

#15yrsago Mozilla tells DHS: we won’t help you censor the Internet https://torrentfreak.com/homeland-security-wants-mozilla-to-pull-domain-seizure-add-on-110505/

#15yrsago Foxconn workers forced to sign promise not to commit suicide due to working conditions https://memex.craphound.com/2011/05/05/foxconn-workers-forced-to-sign-promise-not-to-commit-suicide-due-to-working-conditions/

https://memex.craphound.com

Foxconn workers forced to sign promise not to commit suicide due to working conditions

https://torrentfreak.com

Homeland Security Wants Mozilla to Pull “Domain Seizure” Add-On

Homeland Security's ICE unit is not happy with a Firefox add-on that allows the public to circumvent the domains seizures carried out during the past several months. In an attempt to correct this 'vulnerability' in their anti-piracy strategy, ICE have asked Mozilla to pull the add-on from their site. Unfortunately for them Mozilla denied the request, arguing that this type of censorship may threaten the open Internet.

Two billion viewers (Phil Gyford’s website)

EFF: DeepLinks

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~12 more replies

Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

#15yrsago Shannon’s Law: a story about bridging Faerie and the mundane world with TCP-over-magic https://reactormag.com/shannons-law/

#15yrsago Green Army men with PTSD https://www.wearedorothy.com/collections/artworks/products/casualties-of-war

#10yrsago Deep Insert skimmers: undetectable, disposable short-lived ATM skimmers https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/05/crooks-go-deep-with-deep-insert-skimmers/

#10yrsago How standardizing DRM will make us all less secure https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/04/standardized-drm-will-make-us-less-safe

#10yrsago Excellent advice for generating and maintaining your passwords https://www.wired.com/2016/05/password-tips-experts/

WIRED

7 Password Experts on How to Lock Down Your Online Security

You've got the password basics down. It's time for some advanced techniques.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Standardized DRM Will Make Us Less Safe

Earlier this year, an independent security researcher named Rotem Kerner came forward to disclose critical bugs in a digital video recorder that was integrated into over 70 vendors' CCTV-based security systems. The vulnerability is a grave one. These DVRs are designed to be connected to whole...

Crooks Go Deep With ‘Deep Insert’ Skimmers

ATM maker NCR Corp. says it is seeing a rapid rise in reports of what it calls "deep insert skimmers," wafer-thin fraud devices made to be hidden inside of the card acceptance slot on a cash machine.

Reactor

Shannon's Law - Reactor

Shannon's Law by Cory Doctorow, an original short story from Welcome to Bordertown

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

#10yrsago Amid education funding emergency, Washington State gives Boeing, Microsoft $1B in tax breaks https://jeffreifman.com/2016/05/05/forget-boeing-microsofts-tax-break-costs-776-million/

#5yrsago MRNA vaccines and Clarke's Law https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/05/clarkes-third-law/#indistinguishable-from-magic

#5yrsago Stimmies killed the McJob https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/05/clarkes-third-law/#precariat-nostalgia

#1yrago Bridget Read's 'Little Bosses Everywhere' https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/05/free-enterprise-system/#amway-or-the-highway

https://pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: 05 May 2021

https://pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: Bridget Read's 'Little Bosses Everywhere' (05 May 2025)

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

Yesterday's threads: In praise of vultures; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116527327797102114

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

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:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels

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:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

Macmillan Publishers

Book details - Macmillan Publishers

Enshittification: it’s not just you—the internet sucks now. Here’s why, and here’s how we can disenshittify it.We’re living through the Enshittocen...

Macmillan Publishers

Book details - Macmillan Publishers

New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow returns to the world of Red Team Blues to bring us the origin story of Martin Hench and the most powerful new...

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

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/

10/

https://craphound.com

Shop

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

Upcoming appearances:

* #Guelph: Musagetes Lecture, May 8
https://riverrun.ca/whats-on/guelph-lecture-on-being-2026/

* #Barcelona: Internet no tiene que ser un vertedero (Global Digital Rights Forum), May 13
https://encuentroderechosdigitales.com/en/speakers/

* Virtual: How to Disenshittify the Internet with Wendy Liu (EFF), May 14
https://www.eff.org/event/effecting-change-enshittification

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

* #Berlin: Enshittification at Otherland Books, May 18
https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/cory-doctorow-in-der-friesenstrasse-23-kreuzberg-praesentiert-von-otherland.html

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Ausgebucht! Cory Doctorow in der Friesenstraße 23 Kreuzberg präsentiert von Otherland - Otherland Buchhandlung Berlin

ACHTUNG: Event ist bereits ausgebucht!Cory Doctorow kommt wieder ins Otherland (Event ist ind er Friesenstraße 23)und präsentiert Enshittification (die Veranstaltung findet auf Englisch statt) Wann: 18. 05. 2026 um 19:30 // Wo: Friesenstraße 23 Bitte anmelden mit einer Mail an: service@otherland-berlin.de

River Run Centre

Guelph Lecture—On Being

Electronic Frontier Foundation

EFFecting Change: How to Disenshittify the Internet

The internet didn’t get worse by accident; it’s been systematically molded into what we have today. Join Wendy Liu live in conversation with Cory Doctorow about Cory's latest book, Enshittification. Cory makes it clear: platforms are not as promised, Big Tech is profiting, and you should be...

republica

#rp26-Sprecher Cory Doctorow | re:publica

Was bedeutet „Enshittification“ – und wie kam es dazu? Der Science-Fiction-Autor, Journalist und Technologie-Aktivist zeigt, was dahintersteckt - und was wir dagegen tun können.

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

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

* SXSW #London, Jun 2
https://www.sxswlondon.com/session/how-big-tech-broke-the-internet-b3c4a901

* #NYC: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Jonathan Coulton (The Strand), Jun 24
https://www.strandbooks.com/cory-doctorow-the-reverse-centaur-s-guide-to-life-after-ai.html

* #Edinburgh International Book Festival with Jimmy Wales, Aug 17
https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/events/the-front-list-cory-doctorow-and-jimmy-wales

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How Big Tech Broke the Internet | SXSW London 2026 Sessions

The internet promised openness, creativity, and connection but today a handful of tech giants control much of the digital world. In this talk, Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow - Otherland Buchhandlung Berlin

Cory Doctorow kommt wieder ins Otherlandund präsentiert Enshittification (die Veranstaltung findet auf Englisch statt) Wann: 19. 05. 2026 um 19:30 // Wo: Otherland Bitte anmelden mit einer Mail an: service@otherland-berlin.de

HowTheLightGetsIn - The World's Leading Philosophy and Music Festival

Big Ideas

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

Recent appearances:

* Enshittification (99% Invisible)
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/666-enshittification/

* Artificial Intelligence: The Ultimate Disruptor, with Astra Taylor and Yoshua Bengio (CBC Ideas)
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-23-ideas/clip/16210039-artificial-intelligence-the-ultimate-disruptor

* When Do Platforms Stop Innovating and Start Extracting? (InnovEU)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cccDR0YaMt8

* Pete "Mayor" Buttigieg (No Gods No Mayors)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pete-mayor-with-155614612

* The internet is getting worse (CBC The National)
https://youtu.be/dCVUCdg3Uqc?si=FMcA0EI_Mi13Lw-P

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Inkwell 1.3 for Mac

🎙 InnovEU S5E6 - Cory Doctorow on When Do Platforms Stop Innovating and Start Extracting?

YouTube

🎙 InnovEU S5E6 - Cory Doctorow on When Do Platforms Stop Innovating and Start Extracting?

99% Invisible

Enshittification - 99% Invisible

Jared Wilson is a seventh-generation farmer. He runs a family farm in Missouri, and like most farmers today, he’s facing a lot of challenges, including inconsistent weather and a shaky global economy. But one problem that’s been really vexing Jared for the past decade is the software on his tractor. Most of Jared’s equipment is

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Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 1 hour ago

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/2026/05/07/dump-the-pumpers/

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/

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https://pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: Bubbles are REALLY evil (07 May 2026)

Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory DoctorowPluralistic: Daily links from Cory DoctorowPluralistic: No such thing as selective censorship resistance (16 Sep 2025)Pluralistic: Wallet voting (13 Sep 2025)Pluralistic: Reverse centaurs are the answer to the AI paradox (11 Sep 2025)Pluralistic: Hate the player AND the game (10 Sep 2025)Pluralistic: Trump steals $400b from American workers (09 Sep 2025)Pluralistic: Fingerspitzengefühl (08 Sep 2025)Pluralistic: Stock buybacks are stock swindles (06 Sep 2025)Pluralistic: Why Wikipedia works (05 Sep 2025)Pluralistic: Canny Valley (04 Sep 2025)Pluralistic: The worst possible antitrust outcome (03 Sep 2025)

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