I wanted to make this post to try and raise awareness about internet privacy and censorship among communists, as this seems to be often overlooked in these spaces.
By using big tech services, such as Google’s endless arsenal of “free” services, Apple, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, you are letting these companies learn everything about you: your interests, the people you talk to, the places you go to and your political interests. And as is well known nowadays, all of these companies are lapdogs for western intelligence agencies, handing over all of that precious data to them and censoring dissent. I hope you can clearly see the problem here. As a communist, this presents a massive threat to your freedom of speech, freedom to protest and even your safety, especially if you live in the imperial core.
I urge all comrades to stop using these services, by switching to private and open source alternatives, and to use additional measures to protect your privacy such as TOR or a trustworthy VPN like RiseUp, Calyx or Proton.
You can find more resources here:
While I agree with the overall sentiment here, with respect to organization, be careful not to alienate yourself from the masses.
If you’re not discussing illegal or quasi-illegal activities, I actually encourage you (and myself) to use sites that are not privacy-oriented. Get on TikTok, get on Reddit, get on the apps, sites, and services where the masses congregate.
I understand the impulse to try to pull the masses away from these admittedly toxic places, but we can’t help them on their journey of radicalization if we move onto obscure platforms where they can’t see us anymore. That doesn’t mean we don’t encourage them to join these platforms, but we can’t lock ourselves in to these platforms.
And for shitposting obviously post wherever you want.