By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 01/07/2026And the most spying, most controlling company was Facebook, a company whose products did everything they could to imprison you within their virtual walls, from which vantage they could effect maximal surveillance. 7/ 1242
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 01/07/2026I've used this comparison many times over the years. I included it in my 2023 book *The Internet Con*, along with the joke that Tiktok's position on the grid was so far up and to the right (maximum surveillance and control) that we'd had to put its logo on the back cover. 8/ 1232
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 01/07/2026Enough people took this joke seriously and wrote in to complain that they'd gotten a misprint without the logo that we added it to the paperback: www.versobooks.com/products/303... 9/versobooks.comThe Internet ConWhen 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 ... 1162
