Elon, Call Your Dealer
3 Fresh Reads + Actions Today to Fight the Tech Coup
Dear Citizen,
It’s really all happening now, isn’t it? Welcome to Citizens Re-United, your vanguard for advice on tech and democracy. We’re one month into Trump 2.0 and we know a few things: The President has lost it. Elon and his band of bro-grammers want everyone’s data. And the old platforms for resistance have broken down by design.
Now what?
You’ve got questions: Should I quit social media? How can I stop putting money in the pockets of the tech giants? Is there anything we can do?
We’ve got experts: Since 2020, we’ve been running a project called “The Real Facebook Oversight Board,” a go-to group of esteemed experts, activists and academics in the space. Our folks are Nobel winners, MacArthur Geniuses and algorithmic scientists; whistleblowers, former-Facebookers and youth campaigners. Each week we’ll share a few quick hits from this group - video, commentary, links: what to watch, read and know to understand the broligarchs.
We aren’t another talk shop. Since 2020, when Carole co-founded the Citizens, together we’ve launched podcasts, ran legal actions, pulled off mega (Meta) stunts and held dozens of urgent public conversations aimed at giving hope at a moment when things seem dark. The algorithm and the authoritarians want us divided; but we’re getting our team together. The Citizens, re-united.
Here’s this week's installment.
# THE VANGUARD # MARIA RESSA ON BUILDING A “PUBLIC TECH STACK”
Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa has stood up to authoritarians, and won. And she’s built media by and for the people. In her talk last week at the Vatican, “Hope Comes from Action," she talked about the promise of a different internet - a “public tech stack for better conversations” - that could replace the corporatized platforms we’re stuck with now. Watch here.
The TLDR?
'A few years ago … we began building a public tech stack for the virtual world, where real people can have real conversations without being manipulated for power and money. We rolled out a matrix protocol chat app. It is open source, secure, decentralized. It is used by countries that value data privacy: France, Germany; their websites are on the matrix protocol. Our vision is a federation of global news organizations. It is the only way we will survive this moment.' - Maria Ressa
You can give this new tech a try here.
# ONE CLICK # PLUS… WHAT ROGER IS READING
What’s driving Big Tech’s rightward turn? The industry’s liberal reputation, Becca Lewis writes in The Guardian, is misleading. Its reactionary tendencies – celebrating wealth, power and traditional masculinity – have been clear since the dotcom mania of the 1990s. Read her essay on the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley:
Becca Lewis
Also one quick follow for you to keep up with the broligarchs: Roger McNamee on Bluesky. Roger knows Meta: He was an early investor in Facebook, and literally wrote the book on it, Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe. Today he’s working to reform the tech industry, weighing in on AI and current events and more. Follow him here for analysis and must-reads:
# ONE ACTION # TO THE STREETS! (And your local Tesla dealer…)
The Trump-Musk coup is in full swing. But in spite of the narrative that there’s no resistance to Trump 2.0, Monday may have marked a turning point, with hundreds of rallies across America calling out the tech coup, including some at Tesla dealerships.
Two groups you can plug into to act now:
- The 50501 Movement, which rose up on Reddit, has been organizing local days of action to protest Musk’s takeover.
- Indivisible, which was born out of Trump 1.0, has been organizing thousands and has a great toolkit and ways to fight back against the Trump-Musk coup, from calls and emails to events and social.
Not in the US? These movements need your likes and shares… or your donations.
That’s it for this week.
Hang in there,
The Citizens Team
