#SocialMediaStrike resources

Here I will try to maintain a complete page of links to the main #SocialMediaStrike resources. Includes media to share, below.


Social Media Strike! (larrysanger.org)
Basic info on the social media strike:

On July 4 and 5 (at least one day), people with serious grievances against social media—including you?—will go on strike. You could, but obviously don’t have to, announce that you are one of the signatories of the Declaration of Digital Independence. [more]


Declaration of Digital Independence (larrysanger.org)
Articulates our basic digital rights; explains how the social media giants have systematically violated them; proposes some Principles of Decentralized Social Networks, according to which social networks should be decentralized, with the data being owned by individual users rather than corporations:

Humanity has been contemptuously used by vast digital empires. Thus it is now necessary to replace these empires with decentralized networks of independent individuals, as in the first decades of the Internet. As our participation has been voluntary, no one doubts our right to take this step. But if we are to persuade as many people as possible to join together and make reformed networks possible, we should declare our reasons for wanting to replace the old. [more]


FAQ about the project to decentralize social media (larrysanger.org)
General background info in FAQ format; explains my motives among much else.

What is the Declaration of Digital Independence?

Here it is. It is not meant to be a general bill of digital rights. Rather, it has the very delimited purposes of (1) declaring that we have the digital rights to free speech, privacy, and security, (2) enumerating the ways in which Big Social Media has violated those rights, and (3) articulating some Principles of Decentralized Social Media Networks, which together define the requirements of a better system of social media.


Principles of Decentralized Social Networks (vuild.com)
A clever disappearing copy of just the above-mentioned Principles.

We free individuals should be able to publish our data freely, without having to answer to any corporation. [more]


Proposing a ‘Declaration of Digital Independence’ (wired.com, March 12, 2019)
Longer background document explaining the essential problem with social media—centralization—and how to achieve decentralization. This is where I first articulated the plan I’m pursuing now (the combination of the Declaration, a strike, and some later-planned mass try-outs of alternative social media networks that are more committed to decentralization).

THIS MESSAGE IS mainly for the leaders and enthusiasts of the broad-based movement toward decentralizing content, but especially social media. I’m not trying to start a new project or organization—after all, decentralization is what I am encouraging. I’m partly trying to start a conversation among individuals, to get them thinking and talking—but on a massive scale. But I’m also trying to inspire people to action, to come together and go the last mile to achieving robust and extremely widespread decentralization. [more]


How to decentralize social media, according to Wikipedia’s co-founder (thenextweb.com, Feb. 20, 2019)
The first article I wrote on this idea is relatively short and to the point:

The problem about social media is that it is centralized. Centralization empowers massive corporations and governments to steal our privacy and restrict our speech and autonomy. [more]

Some of the first copies of the Declaration

Vuild.com (just the Principles) – ZeroHedge (complete) – ReclaimTheNet (summarized)

The Declaration is shareable under the CC-by-sa license. I’ll make an effort to add your copy/version here if you’ll let me know about it.

Media to share

I didn’t make these…thanks to the awesome people who did.

Here’s a fantastic short video to use on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/SEDart4/status/1146517273617850372

and elsewhere (Google Drive link).

See also this image that you can use for your profile pictures.

Essentials: Declaration of Digital Independence Social Media Strike!FAQ about the project to decentralize social mediaResources


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Comments

Please do dive in (politely). I want your reactions!

2 responses to “#SocialMediaStrike resources”

  1. Hajo Baess

    I fully agree with your objections to what social media have become today. The business model is rotten, but we also should stop expecting getting everything for free, too. The internet has a very material side also and there are people who put a lot of good and valuable stuff into it. They deserve some material reward, too.

  2. Calling a strike is quite a brilliant idea. I too will participate. On the other hand how do we get the word out? Through social media? By depending on legacy news networks? I think we need to follow up the strike effort by targeting specific practices of the major social media platforms. That will require some innovative design work. I also agree with Hajo Baess above. If we force platforms to respect our privacy, then we will most likely need to accept some form of payment for use of the platform.

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