Today's threads (a thread)

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

#10yrsago Obama’s new Librarian of Congress nominee is a rip-snortin’, copyfightin’, surveillance-hatin’ no-foolin’ LIBRARIAN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU8vXDoBB5s

#10yrsago Math denialism: crypto backdoors and DRM are the alternative medicine of computer science https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/24/the-fbi-wants-a-backdoor-only-it-can-use-but-wanting-it-doesnt-make-it-possible

#10yrsago Uganda’s corrupt president just stole another election, but he couldn’t steal the Internet https://web.archive.org/web/20160225095947/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/uganda-election-day-social-media-blackout-backlash-mobile-payments

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[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

#10yrsago Archbishop of St Louis says Girl Scout Cookies encourage sin https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/23/girl-scouts-cookies-missouri-catholics-st-louis-archbishop

#10yrsago After appointed city manager illegally jacked up prices, Flint paid the highest water rates in America https://eu.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/02/16/study-flint-paid-highest-rate-us-water/80461288/

#10yrsago Baidu browser isn’t just a surveillance tool, it’s a remarkably sloppy one https://citizenlab.ca/research/privacy-security-issues-baidu-browser/

#5yrsago Why Brits can no longer order signed copies of my books https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#brexit-books

7/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

#5yrsago Court rejects TSA qualified immunity https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#junk-touching

#5yrsago The Mauritanian https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#gwb-and-gitmo

#5yrsago EVs as distributed storage grid https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#mobile-batteries

#5yrsago Bossware and the shitty tech adoption curve https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#bossware

#1yrsago How an obscure advisory board lets utilities steal $50b/year from ratepayers https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/24/surfa/#mark-ellis

8/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

Yesterday's threads: Socialist excellence in New York City; and more!

Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)

Attached: 1 image Today's threads (a thread) Inside: Socialist excellence in New York City; and more! Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/24/mamdani-thought/ #Pluralistic 1/

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

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[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)

10/

[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/

11/

[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/

12/

[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

13/

[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

14/

[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

15/

[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

16/

[pluralistic@mamot.fr]

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[joshbuddy@sfba.social]

@pluralistic One of the strangest unexpected joys in moving to Denmark was the unavailability of Uber and Amazon. And yet, online shopping in Denmark is a much nicer experience than in America and it turns out, I don't miss Amazon at all.

[thenovemberman@bookstodon.com]

@joshbuddy @pluralistic

[nuintari@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@joshbuddy @pluralistic I nuked my Amazon account entirely, but I have a few friends who have been known to order me gifts from Amazon. It honestly frustrates me that Amazon is still occasionally getting money on my behalf.

Life without Amazon is better.

[gillinger@mas.to]

@joshbuddy @pluralistic
I'm extremely chagrined to find out that something I ordered on Ebay has just been delivered by Amazon.
I ditched them a couple of years ago and have since discovered that I can buy everything the same price or cheaper elsewhere.

[joshbuddy@sfba.social]

@nuintari @pluralistic yeah totally. Not to mention the amount of times I’ve got counterfeit or misrepresented crap from Amazon. Life is so much better without them

[mc_chouffe@mamot.fr]

@joshbuddy I seize the opportunity : would you recommand a webshop with a full english translation (or french) to send a birthday gift to a kid in Denmark ? I usually wait till I see the family, but this year we won't se each other before a while.

[ichnichdu@mastodon.social]

@joshbuddy @pluralistic
Here is Switzerland we use Digitec and Galaxus for only shopping which have quite a nice user experience. And after shopping with them for years it's hard to describe the whiplash of enshittification and horrible user experience I get if I have to use Amazon. What a horrible website. It's impossible to find what I want and everything is dropshipped by weird and shady sellers...

[koefoed@helvede.net]

@Mc_Chouffe would this work for you? https://www.lirumlarumleg.com/ @joshbuddy