Understood: Who Broke the Internet?

CBC News & Politics
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Understood: Who Broke the Internet?

Host Cory Doctorow coined the word "enshittification" to describe the state of the modern internet: a broken down, decaying place, once full of promise, now overrun with intrusive ads, hateful trolls, aggressive algorithms, zero privacy, and AI-generated slop, with every billionaire tech titan in a race to the bottom to bleed their users and their customers alike. It can feel like it was inevitable — but it didn't have to be this way.The modern internet is the result of decisions made by powerful people, at key moments in history, despite repeated warnings about where it would lead. In Understood: Who Broke the Internet?, Doctorow traces the downward spiral from the heady days of '90s tech-optimism through to today's rotten "enshitternet." You'll meet everyone from visionaries to villains to regular people just trying to survive in today's online world. And you'll discover who broke the internet — and, more importantly, a plan to fix it.  Know more, now. Understood is an anthology podcast that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. Over a handful of episodes, each season unfolds as a story, hosted by a well-connected reporter, and rooted in journalism you can trust. Driven by insight and fueled by curiosity…The stories of our time: Understood. Season 1 - The Naked Emperor: the rise and fall of bitcoin king Sam Bankman-Fried. Season 2 - The Pornhub Empire: the story of how a Montreal-founded company came to dominate the adult industry. Season 3 - Modi’s India: how one man rose from poverty to the peak of political power. Season 4 - Céline: the surprising cultural, political and business alchemy that created a superstar. Season 5 - Who Broke the Internet? The internet sucks now, and it happened on purpose.

Tout voir
  1. Don't Be Evil

    ÉPISODE 1

    Don't Be Evil

    Google Search was the gold standard — a product born in a dorm room during the internet’s early, idealistic era. But when internal emails surfaced they revealed a deeper conflict inside the company: was Google making Search worse, on purpose, to boost ad revenue? Google says its changes are all about benefiting users. Critics say it’s all part of a bigger pattern — one that host Cory Doctorow calls enshittification: the slow, deliberate decay of platforms in the name of profit. Guests in this episode include Ed Zitron, Emmanuel Goldstein, Clive Thompson, and Steven Levy.

    37 min
  2. Ctrl, Ctrl, Ctrl

    ÉPISODE 2

    Ctrl, Ctrl, Ctrl

    In 1998, the United States Congress tried to tame the wild internet with a new law: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But buried in its fine print was a provision that would end up giving tech giants ultimate legal protection and control, and stop innovators from fixing what's broken. Host Cory Doctorow traces how a law written for a different era led to the arrest of a researcher, became the playbook for Meta's enshittification, and lets platforms degrade your online life today — protecting them while they do it.   Guests in this episode include Seth Schoen and Pam Samuelson. Archival recordings feature Dmitry Sklyarov, Bruce Lehman, Al Gore, and Steve Sipress.

    29 min
  3. In God We Antitrust

    ÉPISODE 3

    In God We Antitrust

    American antitrust laws were designed to stop companies from wielding the power of kings. But in the 1970s, a legal scholar named Robert Bork convinced Washington to ignore those laws. Host Cory Doctorow traces how Bork's influence gave digital giants like Amazon a decades-long free pass to dominate markets, crush competitors, exploit their own business clients, and treat users like hostages — and how, after 40 years of inaction, former FTC chair Lina Khan took on the fight to rein in monopoly power.  Guests in this episode include Michael Wiesel, Lina Khan, and Clive Thompson. Archival recordings feature Robert Bork.

    37 min
  4. Kick 'Em in the Dongle

    ÉPISODE 4

    Kick 'Em in the Dongle

    It's 2025. President Trump is back, and the richest men in tech are on stage with him. What started as a dysfunctional internet run by tech giants, and enabled by failed legislation, has morphed into something even more dangerous: what economist Yanis Varoufakis calls technofeudalism. Host Cory Doctorow traces how U.S. trade pressure dragged Canada into America's broken internet model, how shortsighted attempts to make big platforms behave came back to haunt us during the worst wildfire season in Canadian history, and offers up a solution for how to save the internet, asking: in a post-free trade world, why are we still playing by American rules? Guests in this episode include Yanis Varoufakis, Delaney Poitras, Michael Geist, Pam Samuelson, Clive Thompson, Ed Zitron, and Emmanuel Goldstein. Archival recordings feature James Moore.

    41 min
  5. Introducing Understood: Who Broke the Internet?

    BANDE-ANNONCE SAISON 5

    Introducing Understood: Who Broke the Internet?

    It's not you — the internet really does suck. Novelist, blogger and noted internet commentator Cory Doctorow explains what happened to the internet and why you're tormented by ads, bots, algorithms, AI slop and so many pop-ups. Spoiler alert: it wasn't an accident. In a four-part series, Doctorow gets into the decisions made by powerful people that got us here, and most importantly, how we fix it. New episodes released weekly starting on Monday, May 5, 2025.

    4 min
Voir toute la saison 5 (5)

Bande-annonce

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À propos

Host Cory Doctorow coined the word "enshittification" to describe the state of the modern internet: a broken down, decaying place, once full of promise, now overrun with intrusive ads, hateful trolls, aggressive algorithms, zero privacy, and AI-generated slop, with every billionaire tech titan in a race to the bottom to bleed their users and their customers alike. It can feel like it was inevitable — but it didn't have to be this way.The modern internet is the result of decisions made by powerful people, at key moments in history, despite repeated warnings about where it would lead. In Understood: Who Broke the Internet?, Doctorow traces the downward spiral from the heady days of '90s tech-optimism through to today's rotten "enshitternet." You'll meet everyone from visionaries to villains to regular people just trying to survive in today's online world. And you'll discover who broke the internet — and, more importantly, a plan to fix it.  Know more, now. Understood is an anthology podcast that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. Over a handful of episodes, each season unfolds as a story, hosted by a well-connected reporter, and rooted in journalism you can trust. Driven by insight and fueled by curiosity…The stories of our time: Understood. Season 1 - The Naked Emperor: the rise and fall of bitcoin king Sam Bankman-Fried. Season 2 - The Pornhub Empire: the story of how a Montreal-founded company came to dominate the adult industry. Season 3 - Modi’s India: how one man rose from poverty to the peak of political power. Season 4 - Céline: the surprising cultural, political and business alchemy that created a superstar. Season 5 - Who Broke the Internet? The internet sucks now, and it happened on purpose.

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