7.4Returning SeriesDocumentary

Backlight

Tegenlicht in Dutch or Backlight in English is a series of television documentaries by the VPRO, a Dutch public broadcasting organisation. Backlight "aims to grasp the quintessence of prominent trends and developments" in the practice of critical journalism, and tries to improve understanding of the intricate inner workings of our modern society.

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7. The enshittification of the internet

0.0Nov 26, 2025 · 21 min

American activist and writer Cory Doctorow on why the big American tech companies can criticize their products with impunity and we continue to use them anyway. The endless stream of ads nowadays on Google, Instagram and YouTube not only creates frustration, but also genuine concerns. Doctorow coined the term Enshitfification for what goes wrong with the internet and made a thorough analysis of how that could have happened. Because the classic idea, that if a product or service is no longer good, the free market automatically switches to better alternatives, no longer applies in the digital economy.