In the wake of last week’s political assassination, the leaders of the party in power in the United States have been very clear: anyone who expresses anything other than grief and outrage about that event will be pursued and persecuted. Private companies have begun to fire people who are speaking out on social media. Until approximately two days ago a private website listed over 10,000 crowd-sourced submissions of individuals who allegedly deviated from the authoritarian talking points about the killing.
If you have been on the fence about remaining on the major social media platforms, this is an excellent time to make a change. As Ava Smithing of Young People’s Alliance emphasized in her EPIC Champions of Freedom award acceptance talk yesterday (I paraphrase): social media algorithms are optimized for engagement, and ragebait will always maximize that engagement. Your nuanced posts about refusing to mourn a racist, or abhorring the violent act while rejecting the victim’s amorality, aren’t actually starting good conversations. They’re much more likely to be shown to people who wish you harm, and whose ability to harm you will now be supported by significant resources within the Executive Branch.
Here’s what to do:
- STOP posting on Facebook, even in “private” groups. STOP posting on Instagram or Threads. START creating Signal chats (“loops”) with people from those groups. Or create a Matrix account on Element.io and build a fully-end-to-end encrypted chat space for your friends to join.
- LOCK down your Facebook privacy settings. On a desktop web browser choose “Settings & Privacy” then “Privacy Center”. Under “Common Privacy Settings” choose “Manage audience settings”. Under “Profile” set EVERYTHING to “Only Me” or “Friends”. Under “Posts and Stories” choose “Friends” for Future Posts, Stories, and Reels. Under “Limit past posts” click “Limit” to lock your past posts down to friends only. Under “Instagram” click “Make account private” and toggle that switch on. Under both Facebook and Instagram turn on “Review tags before they appear on your profile.”
- DO “lurk.” See who is posting what. Consider unblocking all those aggressive and poorly-behaved people so you can watch what they’re up to: your new privacy settings will keep them from engaging with you too much if you don’t post or comment. DON’T contribute to the marketplace of digital authoritarianism any longer. Stop posting, stop commenting, stop liking or reacting.
- REPOST in your private groups. Work with your family, friends, and affinity groups to vet new people to include. Nurture your interpersonal connections without adding more fuel to the wildfire, that blaze-in-a-dumpster which once could have been the digital commons.
- BE CAUTIOUS about new social media sites. Mastodon is fully distributed and (mostly) corporation-free. BlueSky claims to be, but isn’t QUITE living up to the hype. Post intentionally, limit personal information disclosures, use new usernames (and not your real name).
And send me questions! We’re all in this together.
We take care of us, we keep our community safe, we look out for each other. Go do good work!
