Substack's enshittification begins

Substack introduces reels

Substack have recently introduced reels to their app, as this image shows:

I've marked with a red arrow where the reels button is on the app. It has an interface like TikTok, where you scroll up to watch a new video.

Some people, including me have thought of Substack as the antidote to Twitter: whereas twitter was for 280-character hot takes, Substack was for considered longform posts. But it seems Substack is determined to become like other social media, here by copying TikTok.

And thus the process of enshittification begins, where Substack lets go of all its principles in an endless quest for more users and thus profits.

What is enshittification?

Enshittification is a wonderful word invented by Cory Doctorow to describe how websites get worse over time. Websites start off being good, to attract lots of users, then they get worse in order to monetise those users.

Doctorow describes it thus:

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market", where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

Personally I think an enshittified website should be called a webshite.

Why enshittification happens

William Finnegan explains that Social media platforms start off good:

Every social media platform starts with a simple promise. Facebook wanted to connect college students. Twitter aimed to make status updates instant and conversational. Instagram focused on sharing beautiful photos. YouTube made it easier to upload and share videos. TikTok encouraged creative expression through short-form clips.

At first, these were just ideas—small, scrappy ventures built by idealistic founders who claimed to care about users, creativity, and connection. The platforms weren’t polished, they weren’t profit-driven, and in many cases, they weren’t even sure what they would become.

But, once they get big this changes:

The Tipping Point: Growth at All Costs

The moment a social media platform reaches mainstream adoption, the stakes shift. No longer just a cool tool for early adopters, the platform has become a full-fledged business. Investors start demanding returns. Advertisers see a goldmine of attention. And the pressure builds—not just to grow, but to dominate.

Then if they continue to grow, they become monopolies:

At this stage, the platforms stop being just “tech companies” and become something bigger: media empires that dictate the flow of information, attention, and even reality itself.

• They control what news people see.

• They determine what content gets engagement.

• They shape political narratives.

• They decide what voices get amplified or silenced.

This is the paradox of social media. Every platform starts with a mission. Every platform ends with a monopoly.

Monopolistic infrastructure is powerful:

The cycle keeps repeating because these platforms are not just businesses anymore -- they are infrastructure. They are more powerful than traditional media, more influential than governments, and more entrenched in daily life than most people realize.

Once someone has power, they will inevitably tend to abuse it.

What would good social media look like?

So what would good social media look like? Imagine a bucolic scene in the countryside, where everyone's having a good time...

Firstly it's important that no one company or entity be in control. If one entity is in control, the temptation to enshittify will be too great.

Secondly the posts and replies must be in a form that anyone can take take the data and put their own interface round it. There must be no technical or legal impediments to doing so. Data formats might include RSS, ActivityPub and BlueSky's AT Protocol. Individual posts could be stored on IPFS.

Thus if (for example) Twitter made their user interface worse, it'd be a quick thing for some other company/website to build a better interface around the posts on Twitter.

Sources

Reddit posts on r/substack:

• Substack has reels now?

• Reels?? Is this a joke??

Who owns Substack? -- about how every social network enshittifies, driven by the same commercial pressure.