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Software Freedom or "Breaking Free" in Norway
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Forbrukerrådet ☛ Digital products and services are getting worse – but the trend can be reversed
Digital products and services keep getting worse. A new report from the Norwegian Consumer Council (Forbrukerrådet) shows how this phenomenon – known as enshittification – affects both consumers and society at large, but that it is possible to turn the tide.
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BoingBoing ☛ Meet the Enshittificator, a man whose job is making your apps worse
That's the premise of a short comedy sketch from the Norwegian Consumer Council, produced to promote their report "Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future." The video plays enshittification — Cory Doctorow's term for how platforms lure you in with a good product, then gradually degrade it to extract money — as a perfectly normal career path, complete with family pride and workplace satisfaction.
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Forbrukerrådet ☛ Breaking Free – Forbrukerrådet
In the new report Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future, the Norwegian Consumer Council has delved into enshittification and how to resist it. The report shows how this phenomenon affects both consumers and society at large, but that it is possible to turn the tide. Together with more than 70 consumer groups and other actors in Europe and the US, we are sending letter to policymakers in the EU/EEA, UK and the US.
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Forbrukerrådet ☛ Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future [PDF]
Although enshittification has spread to everything from social media platforms to connected fridges, it is not a natural law. Much of what is needed to prevent enshittification is already there: the laws need enforcing though. The path we are on can be challenged and reversed – we can have a better digital world. This requires rebalancing the power between consumers, big tech companies and alternative service providers. It means giving consumers more and better choice over what happens when they are using these platforms.
The fight to disenshittify the internet is also a fight for innovation: Big Tech is able to enshittify their services after they have become dominant and restricted competition. By pruning back the excesses of big tech, alternative services can get the nourishment they need to grow and flourish. However, this requires active policy choices and vigorous enforcement of existing laws.
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Forbrukerrådet ☛ Letter to EU Institutions: A call to action [PDF]
The undersigned, 29 civil society organisations, are therefore writing to express our concern about the increasing concentration of power and lack of alternatives in digital markets, the push for deregulation, and the urgent need to enforce digital laws to protect our fundamental rights and create a level playing field for competition and innovation.