Compiled by the editorial desk with reference to public statements by Cory Doctorow and reporting on Amazon's marketplace practices.

An AI-generated imitation of technology critic Cory Doctorow's forthcoming book "Enshittification" surfaced on Amazon ahead of the official release, undercutting the legitimate edition and prompting the author to publicly criticize the retailer's oversight. The counterfeit listing appeared days before the genuine book was available, a timing that suggests a deliberate attempt to divert sales.

Doctorow, known for coining the term "enshittification" to describe the degradation of digital platforms, flagged the issue on X (formerly Twitter), posting a screenshot of the offending product. "Love that the slop merchants are using my book to (further) enshittify Amazon, and that Amazon's terrible QA standards is letting 'em do it," he wrote.

The knockoff, listed as a "self-help" paperback, was priced one dollar less than the Kindle version of Doctorow's book. Its title appeared to be a hastily assembled string of SEO-friendly buzzwords: "The Key Understanding You Get from Enshittification Workbook — How to Execute Cory Doctorow's Plan for Reclaiming the Internet, Fighting Platform Decay, and Escaping the Digital Trap for Good."

The product description showed further signs of AI generation, opening with the line: "The Internet Didn't Just Get Worse — It Was Engineered to Collapse." It continued, "You feel it every time you open an app that used to feel magical but now just feels predatory… This isn't accidental. It's enshittification — and Cory Doctorow gave it a name because you were never meant to see it."

The incident is a real-world illustration of the very concept Doctorow explores in his book. In a recent Guardian article, he used Amazon as a prime example of platform decay, the process by which digital services gradually prioritize profits over user experience.

Enshittification, also referred to as platform decay, describes a cycle observed across major tech companies. Initially, platforms like Google, Facebook, and Amazon offer high-quality services to attract a large user base. Once users become dependent, the platforms shift focus to courting business partners, often at the expense of the user experience — increasing ads, reducing functionality, or restricting features for non-paying customers. Eventually, the platform degrades the experience for both users and businesses to maximize profit.

The intentional nature of this decline is a key aspect of the phenomenon. Meta's transformation into a hub of AI-generated content, for example, is not accidental but a calculated business strategy. Similarly, Amazon, with its $2.4 trillion global market value, has the resources to improve its interface and eliminate the flood of dropshipped goods and AI-generated counterfeits that now clog its search results. The question of why it doesn't is central to Doctorow's book.

For readers seeking to understand the forces behind platform decay, the book offers insights — but they must ensure they purchase the authentic edition, not the AI-generated imitation.