Canadian friends, I applaud this push for a boycott of Facebook and Instagram August 23rd and 24th. I understand it's to encourage those companies to let Canadians share news again.
But don''t stop there. OPT OUT FOR GOOD. Canadians don't need the "social" giants--for news or anything else. We need an independent media sharing infrastructure away from those toxic tools. Get off for good, invest in independence, resilience and community connection, and don't look back.
And while you're at it,
just pay @thetyee and the Walrus and the Vancouver Sun or the Globe or whatever a small subscription fee--even $2 will help!--so they don't they have to support Xittter and Facewhatever and InstaBS because they rely on social media advertising, clickthroughs and clickbait to stay afloat.
If we work together we can save Canadian media: keep our journalism independent from Silicon Valley machinery, keep their newspapers afloat, and save ourselves from toxic algorithms.
@cyberlyra A two-day boycott will in the long term mean nothing for a giant like Meta. Learn from reddit users protesting the fiasco there in June. The two-day #redditblackout came and went and now it’s like nothing ever happened.
Blackouts need to be indefinite or until real, positive change comes. No union would strike for two days and then go back to work under the same conditions.
As an aside, any reason to ditch Zuck’s empires is a good one.
@mitchell Precisely why we have to block them for good.
Reddit and Twitter protests didn't matter because--surprise surprise!--the users didn't matter to the CEOs! They had other plans for the site, promises made to the Board for profitability. Like mining the existing dataset of conversations already delivered to develop an ML product, or building a mobile payment app that does it all. No user satisfaction needed.
Same with Meta. They have other fish they are frying. Two days won't do it.
@cyberlyra@mitchell Two days is too short, but a friend of mine challenged me to stay off Twitter for three weeks straight (the doom scrolling was getting me down), and you know? It made it much easier to quit shortly thereafter.
Corporations are not community. Speculative investment vehicles are not resilience. Our technological future is not their birthright.
Please, my fellow Canadians, take this moment to channel your energy into true connectivity. Vote with your feet by denying your clicks, scrolls, logins, and upgrades. Those who can, set up alternative channels, invest in partnerships, work with communities and news outlets in need.
And yes, I've seen all those hand-wringing pieces, blaming Meta for its news boycott putting Yellowknife and Kelowna at risk. But while our country burns they gloat at their good luck--they hold the cards!
But what ACTUALLY put us at risk? Our misplaced assumption that X/Meta are "public interest infrastructure" instead of blatant Silicon Valley investment vehicles.
We are not passive agents of technological determinism. We can be agents of technopolitical change. #optout already.
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