No New Tariffs on Our Love for You

Dear Citizen, 

A little global financial meltdown can’t stop us. We are the Citizens!
With signs that in spite of their billions, the tech CEOs aren’t getting what they paid for, resistance is rising and Zuck is back in the hotseat. Here’s what you need to watch, read and do this week. 

# ONE WATCH: TEDxCOUP # 

“We are watching the collapse of the international order in real-time, and this is just the start,” says investigative journalist and our co-founder Carole Cadwalladr. In her new TED Talk, This is What a Digital Coup Looks Like, Carole shares how all of us can resist data harvesting and mass surveillance, and support others in a groundswell of digital disobedience. Watch here: 

# ONE CLICK: Blue Skies Ahead? # 

We know Twitter/X is a house of filth. What should we expect from BlueSky? In this terrific new piece in the New Yorker, the equally terrific Kyle Chayka profiled Bluesky’s C.E.O., Jay Graber, and her “quest to build non-toxic social media.” He digs deep into the platform and its founding, and writes

Graber likes to compare Bluesky to a hotel: “We’re trying to create a good time for people who step into the lobby,” she said—though the lobby also contains construction materials, left there as a community resource. Users are “going off and exploring custom rooms that people built, and maybe there’s another hotel out back.” If the system proves successful, there will eventually be many hotels operating on the protocol. In the eyes of some of Bluesky’s original supporters, though, the success of its social network has undermined its decentralized vision; its hotel grew so lively so fast that people didn’t venture off to build their own".

Read Kyle’s piece here… and stay tuned for an upcoming event featuring Kyle and others in conversation. 

Bluesky’s Quest to Build Nontoxic Social Media

X and Facebook are governed by the policies of mercurial billionaires. Bluesky’s C.E.O., Jay Graber, says that she wants to give power back to the user.

The New YorkerKyle Chayka

# ONE ACTION: Secure Your Phone and Protest Safer# 

This one is for our rabble-rousers and radicals out there. If you’re out at protests, you can take steps to secure your phone and privacy, and protest smarter. This terrific zine created from text by Jonah Aragon, Project Director of Privacy Guides, walks you through it.

Do this and protest safer: The Protesters' Guide To Smartphone Security.

That’s it for this week. 

The Citizens Team 

*PS - Join our Signal Chat if you haven’t already!