Fighting Enshittification: The Norwegian Consumer Council’s Darkly Humorous Campaign
- The Norwegian Consumer Council released a darkly humorous anti-enshittification ad campaign, pairing a personification of Death with a bearded Nordic mascot named the Enshittificator to illustrate how digital...
- The Norwegian Consumer Council, an independent, government-funded nonprofit advocating for consumer rights, launched the campaign as part of its Breaking Free initiative.
- The idea that firms’ market power means that they can worsen their offerings with impunity, combined with the minor license to vulgarity of my dirty little word, have...
The Norwegian Consumer Council released a darkly humorous anti-enshittification ad campaign, pairing a personification of Death with a bearded Nordic mascot named the Enshittificator to illustrate how digital products are intentionally degraded for corporate profit. Cory Doctorow popularized the term enshittification in 2022 to describe a business cycle where companies lure users with high-quality services, build dependency, and then restrict features behind paywalls while reducing overall quality.
The Campaign and Characters Driving the Anti-Enshittification Message
The Norwegian Consumer Council, an independent, government-funded nonprofit advocating for consumer rights, launched the campaign as part of its Breaking Free initiative. The initiative uses a multipronged policy approach to make technology work for consumers instead of against them. Doctorow collaborated with the nonprofit to launch the series, stating in an email to CNET that firms’ market power allows them to worsen offerings with impunity.
The idea that firms’ market power means that they can worsen their offerings with impunity, combined with the minor license to vulgarity of my dirty little word, have proven a winning combination for helping people direct their anger in the right direction.
Real-World Examples of Digital Enshittification
The campaign satirizes actual corporate practices and policy shifts that have frustrated consumers across the digital market. In one scene, the Enshittificator targets photo storage, telling an employee that 1,000 pictures of a deceased mother belong to him and require payment. This mirrors Google Photos’ 2021 policy change that ended free unlimited storage and capped free accounts at 15GB, requiring a subscription to keep already uploaded files. Another scene targets automakers who sell basic vehicle functionality as add-on subscription services. The videos also highlight planned obsolescence and corporate opposition to right-to-repair laws, which prevent customers from fixing their own devices. These themes reflect historical disputes, such as Apple’s agreement in 2020 to pay up to $500 million to settle a landmark class-action lawsuit over allegations that it secretly slowed down older iPhone models through software updates.