A broad coalition is calling for the second ‘Digital Independence Day’ (DID) this Sunday, with nearly 100 in-person and online events to help people switch to digital services that are ‘on the right side’. In light of the sexualised AI images on X, the Save Social initiative is encouraging people to use DID as an opportunity to leave the toxic platform.
Voices from the Network
It is absurd that the German government is holding summits on digital sovereignty while the Chancellor is posting on the toxic platform X, alongside sexualised deepfakes, hate speech, and incitement to hatred.
12 February is a good opportunity for the government, political parties and institutions such as public service broadcasters and publishing houses to finally withdraw from X and remove the ‘share’ buttons for X from their websites. Who on earth would link to enemies of democracy and sexualised AI fakes?
Sandra Goldschmidt, co-founder of Save Social, regional director of ver.di Hamburg and a member of the NDR Broadcasting Council, emphasises:
Billionaires own over 50 per cent of the world’s media and all social media platforms. They control how we form our opinions. This has to change, and we can change it if we only want to!
Perhaps Elon Musk was trying to tell us something when he renamed Twitter ‘X’. That huge ‘X’ could mean, ‘We tech oligarchs are scrapping your democratic forum and replacing it with platforms that we control.’
It’s time to turn the tables. We’re taking over the platforms now.
Enough is enough – no more excuses! X is emboldening far-right extremists in the US and Europe by amplifying disinformation through algorithms, and is now even providing technologies that digitise sexual violence.
It is impossible to reform X, and it is impossible to ‘counter’ it on X.
The DI.DAY (external link) website (https://di.day (external link)) features a simple guide on how to switch from X to the open Mastodon network, which the initiative says “even Chancellor Merz could make use of”.
This broad coalition of organisations and companies, ranging from the German Journalists’ Association and Wikimedia Germany to Ecosia, the Chaos Computer Club and the Open Source Business Alliance, is calling for Digital Independence Day (DID) for the second time. Using the hashtags #IDIDit and #DUTgemacht, they aim to encourage people to switch to digital services that protect independence, personal data, resilience, and consequently, democracy.
The Chaos Computer Club Flensburg is compiling a list of DI.DAY events across Germany on its website termine.di.day (external link). DI.DAY also offers ‘switch guides’ on its website: simple instructions showing people how to switch from Microsoft Office to privacy-friendly alternatives or how to use the new European payment service Wero as an alternative to PayPal today. Further guides cover switching to independent email providers, messaging apps such as Signal and browsers such as Firefox. The illustrator Florian Biege has created exclusive illustrations for the DI.DAY guides.
More than 150,000 people have signed a petition launched by Save Social, calling on the German government to leave X alone: https://weact.campact.de/petitions/keine-macht-fur-oligarchen-bundesregierung-endlich-runter-von-x (external link).
Further information is available at https://di.day/ (external link).
Press images
Florian Biege’s illustrations may be used for reporting on DI.DAY, provided the credit ‘Florian Biege for DI.DAY’ is included, with ‘DI.DAY’ as a link to the website.
Press contact
For enquiries:
- Save Social – Networks for Democracy gUG Björn Staschen presse@savesocial.eu
