Read the following passage about the The Enshittification of Digital Platforms and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indi...

Read the following passage about the The Enshittification of Digital Platforms and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 31 to 40.

In October 2025, writer and technology activist Cory Doctorow articulated a compelling theory about digital platform deterioration during a Democracy Now! interview. He coined the term "enshittification" to describe how online services progressively become a pain in the butt for everyone involved. Initially, these corporations treat their users exceptionally well, offering attractive features and genuine value. However, once sufficient users become dependent on the service, the company shifts its priorities toward advertisers and commercial clients. [I] Eventually, executives and shareholders extract maximum profit while the experience becomes utterly miserable for ordinary people.

Facebook serves as Doctorow's primary illustration of this phenomenon. The social media giant originally promised transparency, claiming it would neither surveil members nor manipulate their feeds. These assurances gradually evaporated as the corporation implemented pervasive surveillance advertising systems. [II] Advertisement quality plummeted dramatically, fraudulent content proliferated, and publishers faced mounting pressure to comply with algorithmic demands. When the ecosystem grew fragile, Facebook desperately pivoted toward different strategies, yet the fundamental exploitation remained unchanged throughout its transformation.

Doctorow emphasizes that this degradation stems not from malevolent individuals or poor consumer decisions but from systematic policy failures. [III] Regulatory bodies became captured or ineffective, allowing monopolistic behavior to flourish unchecked. Competition diminished substantially as dominant platforms acquired potential rivals before they could threaten established hierarchies. Simultaneously, massive layoffs weakened worker leverage, eliminating internal resistance to exploitative practices. This erosion of institutional discipline created conditions where corporations could behave without meaningful consequences or accountability.

The activist proposes concrete remedies for reversing this troubling trajectory. Interoperability and data portability would empower individuals to abandon platforms without sacrificing their communities and connections. Furthermore, legislation should permit defensive tools enabling users to modify algorithms or restrict data collection. Doctorow criticizes regulations like DMCA Section 1201, which criminalize reverse-engineering applications. [IV] Restoring genuine consumer authority requires dismantling legal barriers that currently protect corporate dominance while punishing those seeking technological autonomy and digital self-determination.

https://www.democracynow.org/z

Question 31: The phrase “a pain in the butt” in paragraph 1 has the closest meaning to __________.

A. breeze through                        B. look forward to                C. get along with                                D. put up with

Question 32: Where in the paragraph does the following sentence best fit?

Subsequently, these business customers also become trapped within the system.

A. [I]                                                B. [II]                                        C. [III]                                                D. [IV]

Question 33: According to the passage, all of the following contributed to platform degradation EXCEPT?

A. Regulatory agencies becoming ineffective or captured by corporate interests

B. Dominant platforms purchasing competitors before they became threatening

C. Insufficient investment in technological infrastructure development

D. Massive workforce reductions diminishing employee bargaining power

Question 34: The word “their” in paragraph 2 refers to _________.

A. executives                                B. advertisers                        C. platforms                                        D. members

Question 35: Which of the following best summarises paragraph 3?

A. Structural policy breakdowns enabled corporate misconduct by weakening regulatory oversight and competitive market forces.

B. Individual executive greed motivated deliberate exploitation through calculated manipulation of vulnerable consumer populations.

C. Technological complexity prevented ordinary citizens from understanding sophisticated corporate data extraction methods effectively.

D. International coordination failures allowed multinational corporations to circumvent domestic consumer protection legislation entirely.

Question 36: The word “malevolent” in paragraph 3 is OPPOSITE in meaning to _________.

A. vindictive                                        B. altruistic                                C. nefarious                                        D. pernicious

Question 37: Which of the following best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 4?

A. Technical compatibility standards would enable corporations to retain users by offering enhanced community networking features.

B. Platform integration systems would encourage individuals to maintain multiple accounts across various competing social networks.

C. Data migration capabilities would require platforms to automatically transfer user content when services become less profitable.

D. Cross-platform functionality would allow users to leave services while preserving their established social networks intact.

Question 38: Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Facebook has always upheld its original promises regarding user privacy and feed transparency.

B. Doctorow blames platform decline mainly on malicious leaders and poor consumer choices.

C. Major platforms purchased potential competitors before they became serious market threats.

D. Existing laws actively support users who attempt to reverse-engineer digital applications.

Question 39: Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A. Digital platforms would improve significantly if executives became more ethical and moral.

B. Stronger antitrust enforcement could help prevent monopolistic platform behavior patterns.

C. Users willingly accept platform exploitation in exchange for convenient digital services.

D. Technology companies inevitably decline regardless of regulatory or policy interventions.

Question 40: Which of the following best summarises the passage?

A. Doctorow explains how platforms exploit users through systemic failures and proposes policy reforms.

B. Doctorow reveals how Facebook deliberately deceived users and demands corporate accountability now.

C. Doctorow argues that technology executives intentionally designed platforms to maximize user harm.

D. Doctorow describes how consumers unknowingly contribute to platform decline through poor decisions.