■ In this week’s Backchannel:Biden’s tech policy advisor zeros in on an epochal ripoff–while watching his work slowly unravel under Trump. Also: Remembering when Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo, and making friends while reporting.
Growing up in Toronto, Tim Wu had a classmate who was the progeny of communist parents. His name was Cory Doctorow. Yes, the same guy who just published a book about enshittification. Though they shared a general worldview, the boyhood pals also had arguments, with Wu typically taking a less radical stance than his buddy. “I read the ‘Communist Manifesto’ in the eighth grade,” says Doctorow. “It was pretty reasonable.” Though the pair lost touch, they reconnected over the past couple of decades and are now friendlier than ever.
The relationship is worth mentioning because Wu—law professor, former FTC adviser, and Joe Biden’s special assistant for technology and competition policy—just published a book called The Age of Extraction. It's a high-minded companion to Doctorow’s gritty polemic. Both of them explain how tech platforms, once they get their claws in you, shift from serving you to serving themselves. As you might expect, Wu’s version tilts heavily toward the idea that our current Gilded Age–level consumer abuse should be tamed by aggressive antitrust action.
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