Introducing the Resist Twin Cities website.

I have spent the last few weeks working on a website called Resist Twin Cities, about how to fight back against Big Tech – and especially Amazon, Google and Meta. The link is in the comments.
It’s still under development, so I would be very grateful if you would take a look around and let me know what you think. What works? What doesn’t? What would make it more useful?
If you like the site, consider signing up for an account, which will allow you to post comment, participate in the online forums, create your own blog and/or contribute to the group blog. Just go to this page, fill out the form, scroll to the bottom and click on the link.

But first, let me anticipate a couple of questions:

Why an economic boycott? Why Amazon, Google and Meta?
The concentrated wealth and power of Big Tech is an existential threat to our democracy and our freedom. Every dollar we spend on their products and services, and every time we allow them to harvest and monetize our data, strengthens them and weakens us. But our collective wealth is the most powerful weapon we have in this battle. And Amazon, Google and Meta are the corporations that rely most directly on our money, and on monetizing our data. You gotta start somewhere.

Amazon used to be great – good for shoppers, good for vendors, and super convenient. Now it’s just an over-priced Temu, selling the same cheap Chinese merch and screwing its vendors. Google Search used to be your gateway to the internet. Now it’s cluttered with ads, spam, and an AI overview designed to short-circuit your trip. Luckily, there are good, privacy-protecting alternatives to Google Search, GMail, Chrome, Android, Maps and all the rest.

You probably hate Facebook and Instagram already, for their invasion of privacy, toxic algorithms, reactionary politics, and unending feed of slop and misinformation. If you aren’t ready to part ways completely, you can stary by turning off their algorithms, and blocking most of their ads.

This sounds like a lot of work, and a lot of inconvenience.

It’s a lot easier than it looks. You don’t have to do it all at once, and you can choose the actions that work for you.

If you aren’t ready to give up Amazon completely, you can start by canceling Amazon Prime, and start comparison shopping online at Costco, which often offers better products, better prices and is just as convient. You can still buy from Amazon, if you must.

As for Google, there are good, privacy-protecting alternatives to Google Search, GMail, Chrome, Android, Maps and all the rest. You can set up a free Proton.me email account and migrate your email data with one click. You can switch your default browser from Chrome to Brave, or Vivaldi or Firefox with a couple of clicks, and import your bookmarks, settings and passwords with one or two more clicks. And you’ll get much better privacy protection at the same time.

You don’t have to give up Facebook or Instagram completely, either. You can set your news feed to “Friends” or “Following” and also start using an ad blocker, which will block most of their ads.

“One person’s boycott isn’t going to make any difference to giant corporations like Amazon, Google and Meta. “

You could say the same thing about one person’s vote, but you aren’t doing this alone. You are climbing aboard a bandwagon that is rapidly picking up speed. People already hate Amazon, Google and Meta. (See “enshittification”) and anger towards Big Tech is exploding around the country, as evidenced by the protests against data centers and Flock surveillance cameras.

And regardless of what impact a boycott might have, don’t you hate the idea that your dollars and data are going towards creating a fascist surveillance state?