The combination of nonlinear network effects, ruthless platform lock-in, and well funded obstruction of regulatory anti-trust reform has created what Cory Doctorow aptly coined an ‘enshittogenic environment’ for spaces of public discourse online - and it seems to be eating open societies worldwide alive.

This talk traces the recent successes of the dis-enshittification movement, starting with Mastodon in 2016 and recently followed by Bluesky in 2022. These projects show, that the way out of the enshittogenic environment is architectural, not merely regulatory.

We will show why functional separation and partial re-decentralization (e.g. to be able to provide powerful search and discoverability services) are necessary pre-conditions for a sustainable emancipation from pure advertising business models and on what civil society needs to focus on to ensure this transition is not slowed down by the standing armies of big media lobbyist in Brussels and Washington.