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The Internet Con

How to Seize the Means of Computation

Author Cory Doctorow
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Paperback
$19.95 US
Verso Books | Verso
On sale Sep 03, 2024 | 192 Pages | 9781804292143
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A USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Winner of the 2024 Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity

"An essential read for anyone that wants to understand how we lost control of our digital spaces and infrastructure to Silicon Valley’s tech giants, and how we can start fighting to get it back." –Tim Maughan, author of INFINITE DETAIL

"A brilliant barn burner of a book." –Kate Crawford, author of The Atlas of AI

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 extraction. 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.
Introduction

PART I. SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATION
1. How Big Tech Got Big
2. Network Effects vs. Switching Costs
3. Copyright Wars, Cybercrime, Terrorism, Human Trafficking and Other Gifts to Big Tech
4. Interop: From Computer Science to the Real World
5. Standards and Mandates: What’s Behind the Shield of Boringness?
6. Adversarial Interop: Guerrilla Warfare and Reverse Engineering
7. Jam Tomorrow: Life after We Seize the Means of Computation
8. Jam Today: How We’ll Get There

PART II. WHAT ABOUT
9. What about Privacy?
10. What about Harassment?
11. What about Algorithmic Radicalization?
12. What about Child Sexual Abuse Material, Nonconsensual Pornography and Terrorist Materials?
13. What about Warranties?
14. What about Poor Countries?
15. What about Blockchain?

Further Reading, Listening and Viewing
Index
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults; HOW TODESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly and conspiracy; INREAL LIFE, a graphic novel; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER. His latest book is ATTACK SURFACE, a stand alone adult sequel to LITTLE BROTHER. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a Visiting Professorof Computer Science at Open University, a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group.
Cory Doctorow View titles by Cory Doctorow

About

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Winner of the 2024 Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity

"An essential read for anyone that wants to understand how we lost control of our digital spaces and infrastructure to Silicon Valley’s tech giants, and how we can start fighting to get it back." –Tim Maughan, author of INFINITE DETAIL

"A brilliant barn burner of a book." –Kate Crawford, author of The Atlas of AI

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 extraction. 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.

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART I. SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATION
1. How Big Tech Got Big
2. Network Effects vs. Switching Costs
3. Copyright Wars, Cybercrime, Terrorism, Human Trafficking and Other Gifts to Big Tech
4. Interop: From Computer Science to the Real World
5. Standards and Mandates: What’s Behind the Shield of Boringness?
6. Adversarial Interop: Guerrilla Warfare and Reverse Engineering
7. Jam Tomorrow: Life after We Seize the Means of Computation
8. Jam Today: How We’ll Get There

PART II. WHAT ABOUT
9. What about Privacy?
10. What about Harassment?
11. What about Algorithmic Radicalization?
12. What about Child Sexual Abuse Material, Nonconsensual Pornography and Terrorist Materials?
13. What about Warranties?
14. What about Poor Countries?
15. What about Blockchain?

Further Reading, Listening and Viewing
Index

Author

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults; HOW TODESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly and conspiracy; INREAL LIFE, a graphic novel; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER. His latest book is ATTACK SURFACE, a stand alone adult sequel to LITTLE BROTHER. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a Visiting Professorof Computer Science at Open University, a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group.
Cory Doctorow View titles by Cory Doctorow

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