Cory DoctorowToday's threads (a thread)
Inside: Tools vs uses; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/16/whittle-a-webserver/
1/
Hey look at this
* Being a Luddite Is Cool and All, but Have You Seen the Hilarious Tapestries The New Looms Make? https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/being-a-luddite-is-cool-and-all-but-have-you-seen-the-hilarious-tapestries-these-new-looms-are-making
* A Judge Decided How They Gave Birth. https://www.propublica.org/article/florida-court-ordered-c-sections?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-newsletter
* F-Droid: Google’s Android verification is an ‘existential’ threat to alt app stores https://thenewstack.io/f-droid-says-googles-android-developer-verification-plan-is-an-existential-threat-to-alternative-app-stores/
* Meta to Shut Down Insta End-to-End Encrypted Chat https://thehackernews.com/2026/03/meta-to-shut-down-instagram-end-to-end.html
* Removed DOGE Deposition Already Backed Up Across the Net https://www.404media.co/the-removed-doge-deposition-videos-have-already-been-backed-up-across-the-internet/
3/
#20yrsago Full text of Bruce Sterling’s ETECH speech from last week https://web.archive.org/web/20060406025248/http://www.viridiandesign.org/2006/03/viridian-note-00459-emerging.html
#20yrsago HOWTO build a glowing throne out of 4k AOL CDs https://web.archive.org/web/20060408174929/https://stupidco.com/aol_throne_intro.html
#20yrsago How Sweden’s “Pirate Bay” site resists the MPAA https://web.archive.org/web/20060423222220/https://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,70358-0.html
#15yrsago Stephen King sticks up for unions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1vW1zPmnKQ
#15yrsago Largest Wisconsin protests ever: 85,000+ people in Madison’s streets https://web.archive.org/web/20110319152841/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/12/wisconsin-protesters-refu_n_834927.html
4/
#15yrsago Why Borders failed https://www.quora.com/Borders-Books/Why-is-Barnes-Noble-performing-well-as-a-business-while-Borders-has-filed-for-bankruptcy/answer/Mark-Evans-9
#15yrsago HOWTO make Pop Rocks https://www.instructables.com/Pop-Rocks/
#15yrsago Ain’t Misbehavin’: subject index to democratic parenting https://memex.craphound.com/2011/03/14/aint-misbehavin-subject-index-to-democratic-parenting/
#10yrsago 50 reasons the TPP is terrible beyond belief https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2016/03/the-trouble-with-the-tpp-day-50-the-case-against-ratifying-the-trans-pacific-partnership/
#10yrsago More high-profile resignations at Breitbart, after abused reporter thrown under Trump’s bus https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/michelle-fields-ben-shapiro-resign-from-breitbart#.vlbZ4YxLe
5/
#10yrsago If Iceland held its elections today, the Pirate Party would win https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-party-to-dominate-icelan-parliament-survey-finds-160314/
#10yrsago The Car Hacker’s Handbook: a Guide for Penetration Testers https://memex.craphound.com/2016/03/14/the-car-hackers-handbook-a-guide-for-penetration-testers/
#10yrsago USA uses TPP-like trade-court to kill massive Indian solar project https://web.archive.org/web/20160314085012/http://theantimedia.org/preview-of-the-tpp-america-just-blocked-a-massive-solar-project-in-india/
#10yrsago These 27 profitable S&P 500 companies paid no tax last year https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/03/07/27-giant-profitable-companies-paid-no-taxes/81399094/
6/
#10yrsago Family: police high-fived after tasering our handcuffed relative to death https://web.archive.org/web/20160312165903/https://www.ajc.com/news/news/crime-law/family-of-victim-in-coweta-county-taser-death-seek/nqhcm/
#1yrago The future of Amazon coders is the present of Amazon warehouse workers https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/13/electronic-whipping/#youre-next
7/
Saturday's threads: Corrupt anticorruption; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116228231520886034
8/
My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels
--
My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
9/
My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
10/
Upcoming appearances:
* #Barcelona: Enshittification with Simona Levi/Xnet (Llibreria Finestres), Mar 20
https://www.llibreriafinestres.com/evento/cory-doctorow/
* #Berkeley: Bioneers keynote, Mar 27
https://conference.bioneers.org/
* #Montreal: Bronfman Lecture (McGill) Apr 10
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/artificial-intelligence-the-ultimate-disrupter-tickets-1982706623885
* #London: Resisting Big Tech Empires (LSBU)
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/globaljusticenow/2042691
11/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #Berlin: Re:publica, May 18-20
https://re-publica.com/de/news/rp26-sprecher-cory-doctorow
* #Berlin: Enshittification at Otherland Books, May 19
https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/cory-doctorow.html
* #HayOnWye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/big-ideas-2
12/
Recent appearances:
* Do you feel screwed over by big tech? (Ontario Today)
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-45-ontario-today/clip/16203024-do-feel-screwed-big-tech
* Launch for Cindy's Cohn's "Privacy's Defender" (City Lights)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuVCm2PUalU
* Chicken Mating Harnesses (This Week in Tech)
https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/1074
* The Virtual Jewel Box (U Utah)
https://tanner.utah.edu/podcast/enshittification-cory-doctorow-matthew-potolsky/
* Tanner Humanities Lecture (U Utah)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Yf1nSyekI
13/
You can follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!
Here's today's edition: https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/16/whittle-a-webserver/
--
If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is ad-/tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🐉". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!
--
You can also get a fulltext RSS feed, licensed CC BY 4.0:
14/
I'm also on Bluesky. Read today's thread there at:
https://bsky.app/profile/did:web:pluralistic.net/post/3mh6mv3igqs2v
eof/
BookShelves eBook ReaderThis is the way. DRM-free ebooks that actually belong to the reader — no expiry, no lock-in, works on any device. More authors should follow your lead.