To mark the first Digital Independence Day, or “DI.DAY” for short, more than two dozen events will take place nationwide on Sunday, January 4. Over 30 initiatives are participating in this day of action, which will be held on the first Sunday of every month from now on. The coalition is calling on people to switch to digital services that protect independence, personal data and resilience – and, by extension, democracy.
Regional chapters of the Chaos Computer Club and other organisations will offer in-person consultations on Sunday to help people switch from WhatsApp to Signal for messaging, for example, or from Windows to Linux for operating systems. Online, the German Informatics Society (GI) and the Save Social initiative, among others, are hosting consultation sessions on switching platforms, such as from X to Mastodon. Many of these consultation services can be found on the DI.DAY-Website (external link).
DI.DAY’s website also offers “switch recipes”: simple instructions to help people switch to privacy-friendly email providers, independent messaging apps like Signal, and browsers like Firefox, for example. Illustrator Florian Biege creates exclusive illustrations for these guides.
Voices from the Network
DI.DAY is coordinated by the Save Social initiative.
It’s a fantastic sign that so many organizations are actively participating in DI.DAY.
It’s easy to switch to the good side. Together, we stand against the power of the monopolists – DI.DAY shows just how powerful we can be when we work together.
“People like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg determine how we access information, discuss issues, communicate, and act online around the world through the monopoly position of their companies,” criticises DI.DAY concept developer Marc-Uwe Kling.
No person or company should have that kind of unchecked influence, because then we would no longer be able to live in freedom.
The major platforms deliberately make switching difficult. At the same time, the network effect works against us. Will we lose our contacts if we switch? Will we be able to find our sources of information again? And how do we go about making the switch? That’s why we’re particularly pleased that CCC experts are available in many cities to provide advice and practical assistance. This ensures that the switch is successful and sustainable.
Franziska Heine, Executive Director of Wikimedia Germany, criticized the federal government at the start of DI.DAY for still using the X network:
Because digital independence is more important than ever for everyone, we gave the Chancellor a Mastodon account for Christmas! You can do the same – give yourself, your neighbors, or your grandma a little freedom and digital self-determination!
In a petition launched by Save Social, more than 150,000 people are currently calling on the federal government to stop using X. Accordingly, DI.DAY also features a guide on how to leave X and switch to Mastodon, an algorithm-free, decentralized service.
Supported by
DI.DAY is supported by a broad coalition of organizations that continues to grow. Current participants include Bonn.digital, the Chaos Computer Club, Digitalcourage, Digitale Gesellschaft, Ecosia, Epicenter.works, fairkom, FediVariety, freiburg. social, Independent Federated Trust & Safety (IFTAS), hostsharing, King Consult, Mastodon, Netzbegrünung, Nextcloud, Ossrox, the Presidium Working Group on Digital Sovereignty of the German Informatics Society (GI), Robin Wood, Save Social – Networks For Democracy, Social Social, the Schöpflin Foundation, Topio, ver.di Hamburg, Wechange, and Wikimedia Germany.
Press Images
The illustrations by Florian Biege may be used for reporting on DI.DAY with the credit “Florian Biege for DI.DAY” (with “DI.DAY” as a link to the website).
Press Contact
For inquiries:
- Save Social – Networks for Democracy gUG Björn Staschen +49-171-8350264
