|
This post is part of a personal letter I originally wrote to family, friends and colleagues earlier this week, which I've adapted into a blog post as it covers a lot of important ground about the digital exodus and the stakes at hand that I want to share more broadly as well. I’m sorry for the urgency and the persistence, but something is happening right now, both in the US and globally, that requires a different level of action we've never seen before. I’m reaching out now because I believe we are at a critical crossroads, and what we do in the next year, could decide the future of the earth and its inhabitants. In my a past post, I shared why a Digital Exodus from the Big 5 (Meta, Google, Amazon, X and Apple) may be the most powerful leverage point we have right now to stop the dismantling of our democracy. These companies are not just monopolizing resources and squelching competition. They're shaping the future of society, steering it toward an authoritarian, surveilled, screen-addicted and deeply unequal world. What we need is more voices at the table. Women's voices. Diverse voices. Voices that have been silenced. But to do that, we have to take our power back. These companies operate in the currency of today: attention and convenience. If enough of us pull away our attention from these apps and devices, we interrupt their economic model and their influence pipeline, reduce their power, and ultimately create an opening to influence what comes next. What we're asking people to do:
It is not just me advocating for this. I shared this idea on a LinkedIn Post a week ago and received more support and responses than almost anything I’ve shared online before - from lawyers, teachers, engineers, writers, environmentalists. Even a tenured Wharton professor commented that this idea makes sense. Wired has also been sounding the alarm about migrating off these same platforms. Here’s a simple overlooked step: We migrate. We unplug. We reclaim our digital and economic power. Big Tech companies - Meta, X, Google, Amazon, Apple - are not neutral platforms. They're actively profiting from surveillance, division, and in some cases, enabling political and climate collapse. Regardless of your political leaning, the consolidation of power in those 5 companies is extremely dangerous - something I’ve heard concerns about from conservatives and liberals alike. And now that their surveillance technology is being actively used in collaboration with an authoritarian government, the downside of this kind of consolidation of power has come into sharp relief. The time for implicit trust in technology and paternalist figures has ended. The spell has broken. And we need something different. But to create something different we need to come together and take our power back first. A Recent Experienced Opened My Eyes In September of 2023, I experienced an event that profoundly changed me. I was violently assaulted by a neighbor, an upper middle class man, someone I had known and trusted. That night, everything I knew about the world and my safety was turned upside down. Because I had no defenses up at the time (I genuinely believed in the best in people) when it happened I couldn't process fast enough and I froze. After extensive research, I learned this wasn’t because I lacked the strength or will to fight back - it was because of something biological. In moments of cognitive dissonance, the body can go into freeze mode as part of a predator-prey dynamic. Predators actually rely on their victims not recognizing danger until it’s too late and that freeze response is real. I'm sharing this because what’s happening right now feels eerily similar, both in terms of the speed of the assault on our democracy, and in the lack of empathy and otherizing by those in power - they are moving fast, relying on people being too distracted, frozen, good-natured, or confused to fight, which mirrors my experience with my neighbor. I don't want us to make the same mistake I did and only register the danger until the harm is already done. The 900+ page Project 2025 playbook is the blueprint for an authoritarianism transition which strips women, marginalized communities, and workers of their rights. It's a rollback of humanity that feels like a return to the dark ages. What people are capable of doing to others that they see as less than human - well, we only need to look at history. I’m sure you’ve heard and seen comparisons to 1930s Germany by now. They have been planning this consolidation of power for years, and in a terrible twist of fate, climate change, AI revolution, the Heritage foundation’s Project 2025, the consolidation of power in those Big5 companies, and a dictatorship ideology by major Technocrats (Theil, Yardin) are coming together in real time as we speak. We are in a Lord of the Rings epic showdown right now, and we must join in fellowship: small gentle people, together, can change the course of history. There's a Simple Solution to Take Back Our Power We have to break out of the freeze state and start moving. The solution I’m offering is EASY and SIMPLE. Unless you are an influencer or small business who makes money off ads on social media or Amazon, everything about this strategy ultimately saves money and time. There’s a little bit of work up front required (e.g. canceling subscriptions, migrating browsers, forwarding Gmail to Proton. etc.) but it doesn’t have to be perfect and you can do it in bits and pieces leading up to Earth Day. Migrating off 80% of the Big5 platforms, in numbers, will be enough to make a difference. Europe has always been skeptical of the US companies and is already doing this naturally. We just need to accelerate it. I'm hoping that you will at least consider, despite my not being famous or powerful, that there just might be something to what I'm saying. And I do have some expertise: I studied public policy at the Kennedy School of Government, chemistry at Reed; I've worked in energy law and sustainability consulting. I know the science, I've seen the numbers. The stakes are high. Yest what is being asked of really doesn't cost that much, but a little bit of time and the rewards are potentially immeasurable. And the worst case scenario? If for some reason my assumption of this being a powerful leverage point is wrong? Then we have a long-needed digital detox from toxic. There’s really no downside. And it’s 100% peaceful and aboveboard. The Stakes Just to reiterate the stakes: Billions of lives on the planet and millions of lives in the US are on the line right now.
And even if global climate wasn't at stake, and we just look at the state of US democracy - every day that goes by that this dismantling continues makes it harder to go back. Even if we put a new president in office tomorrow - rebuilding and refunding the agencies, and bringing neutrality back to the military and courts could take years if not decades. It's not that our government didn't desperately need reform - it was already heavily captured by the corporations. But what they are doing now is consolidating power into the corporation MORE not less. And it's going to make things worse for 99.9% of people, not just in the United States but around the globe because climate change knows no boundaries, and authoritarianism spreads. And once we pass the climate tipping point in a few years, there's no going back at all. We Are All Connected I realize that property owners, retirees, and people who aren’t in financial survival mode may not feel the impacts right now as much as vulnerable people and younger people that are watching jobs disappear due to AI. Some people may even be inadvertently benefiting from what is going on in the stock market. But studies show that life spans decrease as inequality and injustice increases across ALL income levels due to the stress of living in such an unjust world. And no one can outrun climate change. Ultimately, I think we all are feeling the assault on ideals and trust in the justice system, no matter our specific political ideology. From beloved institutions like PBS and Sesame Street coming under fire - to budget changes that are putting loved ones at risk of losing medical care - to the mass unemployment we are seeing from AI taking jobs - to the attacks on universities - to the inevitable social unrests that will follow if we do not act soon. Climate change is happening much much faster than scientists originally predicted. Climate migration is already happening. And once we hit tipping points, we can’t go back. The Exodus Rally Cry Meta, Google, X, Apple and Amazon are all complicit in this: silencing truth, extracting our data, addicting our minds, and quietly backing policies that destroy the future. Every scroll, every click, every view feeds the machine, and speeds up their consolidation of power. But we can take it back. It doesn't have to be perfect, we just have to act now. If you reduce your use of these platforms by even 80%, it will help. I’m sorry if I sound like an alarmist, but this is real and I cannot, I refuse to, stay silent. Bernie has sounded the alarm on Oligarchy and he says we cannot wait for the government to protect us. It has to come from the people. Financial experts have sounded the alarm on climate change and the economic impacts looming. Tech experts have sounded the alarms on AI replacing millions of jobs. We have to act now. In numbers, WE are more powerful than they are. And once we get our power back from the digital world, I believe we can have a seat at the table and turn this ship around. Please join me in the Exodus away from the Big 5: Meta, Google, Amazon, Apple and X that have hijacked our minds, our lives and now democracy itself.
You can start by taking 10 minutes to do something today. You don’t have to do it all at once. Do a little each day until Earth Day, April 22nd. You don’t even need to delete your accounts, you can deactivate (though I recommend deleting the app on your phone because they still make money off of tracking your actions even when you aren’t on the apps). Start by cancelling Amazon, changing your Chrome browser to DuckDuckGo or even Firefox. And PLEASE SHARE THIS with anyone and everyone who you know to be concerned about what’s happening. The Goal is 5 million people in the US by Earth Day. If each of you sent this letter (or some version of it) out to 20-30 people you know, and just five of them took action the next day and shared this with their network and so forth - we could reach 10 million in a week or two. This is not a long shot. The only thing it hinges on is enough people speaking up with their attention and taking action. Worst case scenario? As I mentioned, if I’m wrong, we get a welcome digital detox and support smaller businesses. But if I’m right? We may have just created the leverage we need to fight back against corporate consolidation and dismantling of democracy through a practical, peaceful, and powerful act of defiance. Let's reclaim our power together. History is watching us now. Together, we can make this happen. Our collective action is the key to turning this tide. Let’s not go quietly. References
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
 Download the Exodus Guidebook
About
Blog focused on concrete actions we can take towards protecting life, justice and human rights.
Author
Amanda Ianthe Greene, Research, Policy and Systems Analyst, Archives
January 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed