The previously clandestine and now quite overt censoring of conservative voices on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Platforms has now reached dangerous levels. This is not just about Trump. Social media is critical to modern political discourse. The censorship must be resisted. That means targeting profitability, and that means boycotts. But I won't cut off my nose to spite my face. I will continue to use these platforms in the short term while taking the following measures to abandon them as soon as it is practical.
1. To the greatest extent possible, I will try to post nearly exclusively on Parler and MeWe
2. I will post on Twitter and Facebook only links to those Parler and MeWe posts
3. You are not forced to join those sites to view my posts, but I hope once you are on the sites reading my stuff, you will take the opportunity to join those communities. Please join/follow/friend me when you get there.
4. Eventually, once those alternative communities have reached the critical mass needed to function as effectively as Twitter and Facebook once did, I will abandon those legacy services entirely. Ironically, with their recent actions, those legacy companies may have accelerated the realization of that network effect functionality.
In the mean time, here is what else I am doing:
To the extent possible, I am viewing my favorite video podcasts on Rumble instead of YouTube. They don't censor political speech and their terms are financially much more appealing for content creators. Also, they have plans to incorporate live streaming in the new year.
I have abandoned Google as my search engine on all platforms. I use Duck Duck Go
I am researching my options for switching email providers to jettison G-Mail. Looking at Protonmail which offers end to end encryption. They don't mine your emails for data about you to sell. Even if privacy isn't your primary concern, you'll be incrementally robbing Google of a source of revenue.
I'm @Exaeroman at Parler
I'm Jesse McVay at MeWe
Feel free to visit me on Parler or MeWe and comment if you have other suggestions for alternative social media platforms.
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