What is deSHITtification?
By deSHITtify, we mean that you, as a private individual and/or as an organization, free yourself from US-dominated technology and their shitty deals, shitty-quality services, and unbridled surveillance. Think of technological services provided by tech giants Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta, and so on. The list is long.
We use the word free yourself, because it is something you are stuck in, at least almost everyone is. It is nothing to be ashamed of. We’ve all let it happen; it seemed so easy and logical. And, depending on the service, switching to something else is not exactly made easy. deSHITtifying is therefore not something you can just do in an afternoon.
It is necessary to do this now, because the risk of being completely dependent on American technology is simply too great. Especially now that we see the US society collapsing before our eyes. That is why it is both important and urgent.
What’s going on?
For some time now, American technology companies in particular have been gaining monopoly positions, offering services with a poorer price-quality ratio and monitoring users (you and your organization!) on an ever-larger scale and selling this data. This process is called enshittification, and this alone is reason enough to turn your back on these companies and look for alternatives.
Recently, developments in the US have added to the destabilization of the country. President Trump’s policies make the US an unreliable partner to work with, and certainly not a partner on which to be completely dependent for all your tech services. As if that weren’t enough, the monopolies of the American tech bros also actively support the rise of totalitarian regimes, fascism, and the genocide in Gaza. You simply don’t want to support that team.
EnSHITtification
EnSHITtification or platform decay is a term used to describe the degradation or declining usefulness of an online environment for the user. The term was coined in November 2022 by writer Cory Doctorow to describe a trend in which large platforms are reducing free features or making them paid/more expensive, or taking other actions that are seen as a deterioration of functionality in ways intended to thwart competition and increase profits. Doctorow cites the failure to curb the greed of tech monopolies and the rise of generated (read: inferior) content by chatbots and AI as the cause. The technological services on which you are completely dependent also use all your online behavior, data, and more for more purposes than you could ever imagine and for which you have never consciously given your consent. It is practically impossible to read all the terms and conditions for all the services you purchase, especially if they are modified to your disadvantage.
VPRO’s Tegenlicht made the documentary below about this and translated enshittication as verkuttificatie. We do not adopt this term, but it is prominently featured here. After all, even VPRO does everything for the clicks.
Need help?
We are here to help you migrate to local or self-hosted services, preferably based on open-source software. We also support initiatives to improve the user-friendliness of open-source software.
You can read more here on what you need to do in order to deSHITtify.