Thread by @withknown

*tap tap tap*

Is this thing on?

We’re in the midst of a global pandemic. The deadly effects of this virus are bad enough, but it arrived during an upswing in nationalism and fascism around the world. Our current leaders thrive by obfuscating truth. In a pandemic, lives are at stake.

The best way for all of us to fight back against disinformation is to amplify real information. That means fighting back against conspiracy theories, but it also means telling our own stories. What are the police doing near you? If you’re on the front lines, are you protected?

Social media algorithms are optimized for advertising. Platforms set rules based on agendas that are opaque to us in order to spin the content we all create into a narrative that suits someone else’s profit motive. Even when the stories are true, the delivery may be propaganda.

This is a moment where everyone should be telling their stories on their own sites - with whatever platform they’re most comfortable with. Post content. Syndicate it elsewhere. Make many copies. Don’t let your - and all of our - authentic stories be swamped.

The #indieweb can be a way that everybody’s personal truths are shared, delivered, revealed, and kept for posterity away from profit motives and the need for propaganda. All of us should be posting more than ever before. Record what you’re seeing; what you’re thinking.

We’re all living through an unprecedented period of history. People in prisons are dying. People in hospitals are grievously undersupplied. All of us are under lockdown. And the virus is still spreading. Don’t let powerful people be the ones who get to tell this story.

Thanks for listening. Be safe and well. And please find a way to record your world so that future generations can learn what really happened.

Over and out.