Beware The Hidden Middlemen

Within the first feewpages of reading Enshitification by Cory Doctorow (spoiler alert don’t waste your time, the book is literally a long rambling blog post) I began to think about the word platforms. He describes online platforms as “a business that operates a two-sided market, that is, a system that connects business customers and end users” but I think it goes further than that.

Platforms as essentially middlemen (apologies for the random genderification) or gatekeepers between one thing and another. They usually promise to make an existing bridge between those things (or many things) easier. In the cases that Cory outlines he sticks to B2C, Amazon, Facebook, App Stores. But in the world of blogging they promise to link users together, publish posts to the web and make discovery easier. mAybe a bit of social media. All for a fee, of course.

Many use words like open, independent, community and more recently, decentralised. Promising to empower users by publishing their thoughts to the web, and many other places, whilst encouraging you to keep everything in once place. A place they control. Whispering “Trust us, it’s the best way to keep control of your content, on our servers”.

There might be options built in, to show they really care, but when they decide what types of posts you can have, how they work, what plugins you can use and where they go — who is really in control here? They call all the shots, on building features, breaking things that worked before and how your posts are displayed.

Not everyone can run their servers and ensure it stays online to publish their posts to. What blogging platforms do is make that easier for you. They enable your words to go from your device to the web. In the same way Uber enables you to go from one place to another. You could walk, but a car is easier.

My posts on this blog, are ultimately controlled by Ghost and what they choose the platform to do. I could put them anywhere, but when I moved, one of my considerations was easy publishing and I gave up some control to do that. They promise open-web stuff, but on their terms, and how they want to do it. As with other platforms, the openness is often an illusion, and one you must be aware of. You can move, of course, but it’s a hassle.

They are no different to others. With hand wavy words used to sell their platform to you. Transparency, interoperability, control. Whilst being incentivised to promote and develop in a way to maximise income, nothing more.