As someone who spends much of his life (personally and professionally) on the internet, I’m reaching out to ask you to do one small, but very difficult thing. Before I ask, I think I need to provide some context.
First, you’re probably aware that a few years ago, a billionaire purchased one of the largest social media platforms that existed at the time. What you may not realize is the impact this has had on our media, society, our political landscape, and our ability to empathize with one another. A lot of our information ecosystem is now owned and controlled by a few very rich, very powerful men.
This isn’t happening in isolation, either. Other popular (and not-so-popular) platforms are leaning more and more towards accommodating extremist points of view. For example, Meta now allows personal attacks based on identity, explicitly permitting attributing gender or sexual identity to mental illness (which not only is thoroughly debunked, but stigmatizes both communities).
Finally, we saw that foul troll billionaire I mentioned at the beginning throw two nazi salutes on Monday. Make no mistake, because he sure didn’t: if that’s not a nazi salute, then there would be a whole lot of clarification from the source himself, and there isn’t. For the past decade, online discourse in these spaces has been moving more and more towards fascist, hateful rhetoric.
So I’m asking you to do two simple, but difficult things: draw your line, and then stick to it. Decide now what’s too hateful, what’s too dehumanizing, what is a move that will make you decide to leave. I’m asking you to join a union of humans in favour of humanity, and stand up and do something that will be unpleasant, because we must stand up for those who are currently being targeted.
It’s time to stop patronizing:
- Threads
- Messenger
- Tesla
That’s the only power we have in this scenario. They have purchased our government. They own our media outlets. We are told that we have to abide by their hateful words, because they’re free to say horrible things and we are powerless to do anything but listen. They control the algorithms that influence what we watch, hear, read, and share, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can pick up our ball, and we can go play with the nice kids instead of hanging out with the bullies. We can say no, and take our business somewhere else.
If you don’t believe the situation is dire, I really hope you can take a long hard look outside your immediate world and ask yourself some hard questions, because things really are that bad. A lot of us are shielded by our privilege, allowing us the ability to stay passive and decide to “not get involved” but when targeting is made based on an individual’s circumstance, I believe that anyone of moral character no longer has a choice.
If you’re a human, and you’re on the internet, you are involved. Not making a decision is, in fact, making a decision.
If you’re like me and you’ve already made the decision to leave, that’s great! Reach out to your network, try and keep as many contacts as you can, and invite them to join you in a new space that’s less tolerant of hate.
If you’re not sure where to go, there are options. Options that are owned by smaller corporations (such as Blue Sky), at least, until they get bought up by the big ones. But there are other, smaller, more community-focused options such as Mastodon, Pixelfed, and Loops. If you’re curious about how it’s possible to have a globally-available social media platform that’s also small and community oriented, I invite you to learn more, or reach out and I can share with you.
I’m asking you to refuse to participate in spaces owned and controlled by hateful people.