Enshittification and the Trust Economy

Key Points

• Doctorow’s enshittification cycle: good for users → good for business → extract value
• Applied to content: platforms strip metadata, compress images, inject ads
• C2PA as the anti-enshittification tool — provenance travels with content
• POSSE as the escape route — own your content, syndicate everywhere

Potential Angles

• “Your Platform Is Eating Your Content’s Identity” (provocative)
• “Doctorow Was Right: Content Provenance Is the Escape Hatch” (thought-leadership)
• “From Enshittification to Verification: A Content Creator’s Guide” (practical)

Target Audience

• IndieWeb advocates
• Content creators burned by platform changes
• Journalists and media professionals
• Open source enthusiasts

Data / Stats Needed

• Platform policy changes affecting content metadata (historical)
• User trust surveys (Edelman Trust Barometer)
• Content creator platform migration statistics