Negative thoughts flooded my mind. The EU is constantly trying to push Chat Control. They’re blocking bootloaders on phones, introducing ID and face scanning everywhere, in the US they’re trying to push system-level verification, corporations are spitting in our faces and don’t even hide it. I know we have to fight. My personal rebellion was joining Fediverse and Lemmy and quitting Reddit. But seriously, boss—I’m tired. Are our attempts to preserve internet freedom futile? Can we win against corporations and politicians who we pay but don’t listen to us?

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    We have to keep fighting, and it isn’t easy but we have been building great things! Look at the growth of the fediverse with projects like mastodon, Lemmy, pixelfed, etc. More and more, people want alternatives to surveillance-capitalist social media platforms. They see the value in privacy as the stakes get higher for activists. Keep fighting, keep sharing.

    Now, I also believe that ultimately we cannot solve political problems with technical solutions. We need to organize online and offline to effect real change. This organization must be multifaceted (“diversity of tactics”). A recent success of this type has been rolling back flock surveillance in municipalities around the US. Go to city council meetings with your neighbors. If the council won’t listen, then go out later with a comrade and smash those fucking things.

  • budd@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    Can someone 😇 please crash (DOS) more times this services so that people find other options (WhatsApp> signal, X>fediverse, etc)? It’s always been like that when there’s a blackout…

  • phil@lemmy.openitco.de
    0·
    2 months ago

    The zillion dollar question. The control freaks do their job and have lots of power, but on the other hand the diversity of responses is immense. Things change: it’s evolution. Be smart, adapt, and don’t forget that a better tomorrow for each and all is possible, day after day.

  • pineapple@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    We will always be able to keep our own provacy. Linux phones are getting better, motorola is working with grapheneos. Even if all new phones suddenly become locked down we will still have our own phones. They cant stop us from building and using our own private services. The main issue I see is friends and damily not willing to use private messages.

  • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I’m already tempted to resort to wild violence, since we are being pushed out of the last bit of freedom we have. I’m about to get diagnosed and the business has a good chance of succeeding, at which point I can push peaceful measures. I hope I’m not forced to do what I have to, because if I die, my father is infamous for some things, and I’m fairly sure he will leave far more bodies than I ever could.

    He has an actual squad of ex-special force buddies.

    Overall, someone is getting fucked, one way or another. We can’t just let them push extralegal bullshit on us with no resistance.

    I’m trying to actuate the peaceful plan rn, but I’m squeezed so badly already. No one can do you in as much as your own family, I got into so much debt bailing them, and looking for a second job.

  • onlinepersona@programming.dev
    0·
    2 months ago

    Just do your part and don’t get discouraged. You don’t have to do everything. Walk the walk, talk the talk. If things don’t work out, at least you tried; that’s more than the majority did.

    Do what you do no because of some expected local or global outcome, but because it’s right.

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      i wish i had spent more time on the “pessimism of the spirit; optimism of the will” part before i started to learn about leftism; i’m in a funk rn because there’s a seemingly impenetrable gulf between where we are as a society and where we think we are and it’s making me want to give up.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
      0·
      2 months ago

      Lemmy lets me do it by typing three hyphens - - - without spaces—like this.

      But I really don’t see a reason to use anything other than a hyphen - it shows I’m human!

      • myrmidex@belgae.social
        0·
        2 months ago

        oh—that’s neat!

        Yea I thought this was a bot, 5 hour old account and such a weird first post containing an em-dash. Glad I was mistaken!

    • Helix 🧬@feddit.org
      0·
      2 months ago

      I use Heliboard – on Android — which has a lot of different dashes when you long·press the -regular- dash.

      With Linux you can use the compose key or some key combinations, usually with a modifier like AltGr or Shift+Alt.

    • GMac@feddit.orgEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Most word processors do it for you If you type space dash space then any letter, it will convert the dash to an emdash when the letter is typed.

  • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    yes, but not in the west, obviously. you’re describing imperialist colonizers as if they somehow should be the beacon against the panopticon? my brother in christ, they created the panopticon. as the empire collapses, living conditions worsen and the crisis deepens, they’ll enforce more and more policies that reveal their true face: fascism. we have a chance, we as in the global south.

    • Helix 🧬@feddit.orgEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Why do you think the global south will be unaffected by fascism? If there is a rise of surveillance capitalism and fascism they’ll try to suppress foreign people with other viewpoints.

      • cottonbk@szmer.infoOP
        0·
        2 months ago

        Brazil is part of the global south, and together with the US, they are pushing age verification at the systemic level, just to mention

      • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
        0·
        2 months ago

        im not saying that it won’t but op is talking about this issue and referencing imperialist countries for hope, they created this, why do you think the hope would be there? i don’t understand what’s the privacy community obssession over ewwrope at all, all of those countries are part of the 3/5/8/16/32 eyes. they are the ones pushing age verification even if some other countries also apply it.

  • it_depends_man@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    But seriously, boss—I’m tired. Are our attempts to preserve internet freedom futile?

    Nah, we’re fine. It’s just that serious secrecy is a lot more effort and I’d rather not need that. But we do have all the tools.

    That’s 80% of the frustration for me. They have already lost that fight for control when they legalized encryption. Now the cat is out of the bag.

    For example, encrypting things and hiding them in normal pictures and posts. Using code words in normal online interactions, woven into sentences where there is nothing to decrypt and the message only makes sense to people looking for a message.

    Properly executed encryption isn’t just indistinguishable from regular white noise, if it’s mixed into a channel already carrying a message, an observer not looking for something will never see the difference.