(Note: This article was originally published to JamieMcSloy.co.uk on May 3rd, 2019. I’m going through an old backup of the site, which has hundreds of posts that aren’t currently uploaded. As I’m working hard on updating the site – and releasing The Vault, letting these old posts be the daily posts for a while. We’re getting very close now, so bear with me. Soon I’ll resume regular posting and then just upload these archives in one go.)
Quick Big Tech Thoughts
Some Political Folks Got Banned… Episode #3904
In the midst of an unanticipated day, I spent all of about ten minutes online. In those ten minutes, I did a quick browse of Twitter to answer some DMs and generally be nosy.
It turns out that a bunch of right-leaning commentators have been banned from social media… again.
Now, as a rule I don’t follow politics all that much outside of reading headlines and the more sophisticated digest set up I have going as part of the OPSEC stuff I do. Side note; watch the news/read the news. Make a note of the headlines/perceived talking points. Check back in two months and see how many of those things came to be. It’ll give you a new perspective of “what’s going on” and “what the news really is.”
As such, I don’t really recognise the names. I know that Alex Jones was de-platformed recently, and thus the writing is on the wall.
This ultimately isn’t news. People with the keys to power tend to seek power’s consolidation. It’s the One Ring story in real life, except instead of Sauron sending armies of orcs, you get the HR departments and then the gulag inspectors.
Power corrupts, and it does so until the Jenga tower collapses.
There’s little us internet pirates can do, and for the most part, it’s still outwardly political and contentious folks getting banned. That isn’t right… but we’re dealt the cards we’re dealt.
“But Jamie… what about my rights?”
Well…
I Don’t Buy The “Social Media Is Infrastructure” Argument… Yet
A common argument regarding deplatforming is that social media and big tech giants occupy the same space that telecoms or energy providers have; they’re part of the infrastructure and you can’t exactly build a competitor to Twitter on your own.
That’s true in a sense. In another sense, it isn’t true.
My solution to this is not to build a new Google or to try and replace Facebook.
It’s to understand that you, instead of picking an Empire to live in, take to the high seas.
What the hell are you on about, Jamie?
The Solution Has Already Happened
Back in the day – all five years ago or so of it – most people didn’t use social media platforms as their only source of news.
And if you were building an online reputation, you didn’t build it entirely on someone else’s platform.
I know a handful of years is basically ancient, but if you can, cast yourselves back to a time where people created their own portfolio websites, went on internet forums for their specific interests, connected with people through email and if they wrote a blog, did it on their own domain.
There is no reason you can’t do that; Twitter and Google aren’t involved. Sure, you lose the dopamine rush of instant gratification when you wait six months between blog comments and you aren’t going to get a million followers overnight, but ultimately… you don’t have to worry about the ban hammer from your favourite possible Silicon Valley reptilian.
You don’t need social media to be social. You don’t need Facebook to spread the word about your work or identity. And you don’t need Tinder to find a date. Or Google to get customers.
You’ll have to sacrifice dopamine and the potential for virality – for the most part – but your operations are safer.
And most stuff can be done without big tech; you can host your own email server, you can host your own site, you can build online communities and shock, horror, create offline communities or take those online communities offline.
And this is all somewhat over the top speculation because you can mostly play by the rules and go completely unnoticed; which I continue to recommend.
What’s Worrying… ISPs, Registrars and Payment Gateways
I’m not so concerned about the social media banning. The above directions suffice to mitigate nearly all of that damage; and as always, I think controversial opinions should be kept to a minimum and it’s best to play the board you’ve been given.
That board being don’t anger the reptiles in charge of the big tech companies if you want to play the big tech game.
That said…
I have seen worrying accounts – on the fringes, but still – of other stuff which is more of a way.
People getting suspended from payment gateways; people’s domains being seized; and people having to find different hosts because hosting companies have taken a dislike to them.
This is all more concerning to me than social media. You don’t need social media, but being unable to take payment is a bigger issue entirely. It’s also the only thing I haven’t thought of a solution for yet.
So… follow the steps I outlined above and try and avoid that ban-hammer, and if you must rock the boat, I suggest you use multi-payment gateways and think of a different means of taking payment that your customers can and will readily adopt. (There goes crypto as an option!)