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Sources

Bahrain Court Upholds Sentence Against Activists Leaders

BBC NEWS, THE GUARDIAN (UK), WASHINGTON POST, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (US)

Worldcrunch

MANAMA – A Bahraini civilian court has upheld jail sentences against 20 leaders of last year’s pro-democracy demonstrations, including eight prominent activists facing life in prison, reports BBC News .

Among those convicted to life were Abdulhadi al Khawaja, who went on a 110-day hunger strike to protest his detention as well as opposition leader Hassan Mushaimaa, who had called for the Bahrain monarchy to be turned into a republic, explains The Guardian .

Twelve activists, including Sunni Muslim opposition leader Ibrahim Sharif, were given prison terms from five to 15 years.

The protesters were initially sentenced last year by a military court for allegedly plotting to overthrow King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa's regime.

The group represents some of the most high-profile leaders of the Shiite-led movement demanding greater political freedom from the Sunni-led ruling kingdom. The Arab Spring-inspired uprising started 19 months ago, reports T he Washington Post .

Shiites represents about 70 percent of Bahrain’s citizens, but claim they face systematic discrimination, such as being excluded from top government posts.

According to international observers and local NGOs, at least 60 people are said to have been killed since protests erupted in February 2011.

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Ideas

Look At This Crap! The "Enshittification" Theory Of Why The Internet Is Broken

The term was coined by journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the fatal drift of major Internet platforms: if they were ever useful and user-friendly, they will inevitably end up being odious.

A person holding their smartphone

Gilles Lambert/ ZUMA
Manuel Ligero

-Analysis-

The universe tends toward chaos. Ultimately, everything degenerates. These immutable laws are even more true of the Internet .

In the case of media platforms, everything you once thought was a good service will, sooner or later, disgust you. This trend has been given a name: enshittification . The term was coined by Canadian blogger and journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the inevitable drift of technological giants toward... well.

The explanation is in line with the most basic tenets of Marxism. All digital companies have investors (essentially the bourgeoisie, people who don't perform any work and take the lion's share of the profits), and these investors want to see the percentage of their gains grow year after year. This pushes companies to make decisions that affect the service they provide to their customers. Although they don't do it unwillingly, quite the opposite.

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Annoying customers is just another part of the business plan. Look at Netflix , for example. The streaming giant has long been riddling how to monetize shared Netflix accounts. Option 1: adding a premium option to its regular price. Next, it asked for verification through text messages. After that, it considered raising the total subscription price. It also mulled adding advertising to the mix, and so on. These endless maneuvers irritated its audience, even as the company has been unable to decide which way it wants to go. So, slowly but surely, we see it drifting toward enshittification.

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