Here's a thread to document my gradual exiting of anti-democratic tech, sometimes staying there, but inactively, and in other cases by eliminating my profile and data fully and leaving altogether. As I'm part of many networks (like you?), this is generally not something I can do in one day and simply pull the plug; it is nudging my contacts and networks towards the #democratictech, and that often is a slow process. It really is something I'm dedicating time to on a daily basis.
#exit
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WhatsApp is maybe the most difficult one: when Facebook bought the chat app in 2014, I decided to leave the app. But after one year of missed parties of my friends, I decided to return. I didn't want to miss that much of my friends' and families' lives.
Those days we used services like IRC, XMPP and Telegram for different circles of work and activist life. No WhatsApp, of course.
Over the last ten years more and more people started to join Signal as a privacy by design chat service. With Meta/Facebook changing their Terms of Use a few years ago, many more people joined Signal. And since Trump II, Signal is now mainstream in many countries. E.g. my family and friends in The Netherlands migrated there in the first half of 2025.
#exit#UndemocraticTech
Now I'm still on #WhatsApp, but really in passive mode. The app on my phone has all notifications off. And I only see what's going on in that #UndemocraticTech app, when I go there intentionally, which I do only to read. I stopped sharing photos, videos and texts.
If you want my response or input, just open your Signal, Element.io/matrix or Delta.chat app. Good ol' email works really nicely still :-)
That's my message to friends, family and acquaintances. Meet me at the other side.
#exit
@1br0wn that's also using the matrix network, like Element.io, right? And also including bridges to the undemicratic IM networks IIRC?
I still had an account at PayPal, you know the payment service that profiles you cofounded by Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, two of the most dangerous extreme right tech billionaires of our age.
Not anymore; I requested to get my data deleted and my account suspended. Gone. One bad tech service less.
#exit
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