From the Norwegian Consumer Council, a funny video that warns against the dangers of enshittification. It’s part of their Breaking Free initiative:Digital products and services are steadily becoming worse. Softwarebecomes increasingly difficult and frustrating to use, websites and appsare littered with ads and spam content, and useful features are removed,degraded, or made subscription-only. This is part of a process calledenshittification.Enshittification happens in stages: First a company attracts users byproviding a valuable service, often seemingly for free or at an artificiallylow price. The company then exploits those users to draw in businesscustomers, and finally abuses its business customers and claws back allthe value for itself and its shareholders.Enshittification is the result of a dysfunctional market, where companieshave been able to get away with mistreating and exploiting consumers.Consumers are trapped in digital services, potential competitors areshut out, and policymakers and regulators are unable or reluctant toclamp down on anticompetitive, illegal and otherwise abusive behavior.In practice, a handful of tech companies have become so powerful thatthey do not have reason to fear any consequences. Tags: video