Disenshittify or die

Cory Doctorow asks: “What the f*ck happened to the old, good internet?”

27 Aug 2024 — 1 min read

Okay, this a long read (it's actually a transcript from a recent Cory Doctorow speech), but it's so worth it.

This part on how TikTok uses something called a ‘heating tool’ to attract new users (and drive how those users behave) is especially fascinating:

When someone in the TikTok brain trust decides they need more sports bros on the platform, they pick one bro out at random and make him king for the day, heating the shit out of his account. That guy gets a bazillion views and he starts running around on all the sports bro forums trumpeting his success: “I am the Louis Pasteur of sports bro influencers!” The other sports bros pile in and start retooling to make content that conforms to the idiosyncratic Tiktok format. When they fail ... they assume that it’s because they’re doing Tiktok wrong, because they don’t know about the heating tool.

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