TAKE BACK THE POWER TO CHANGE

Sensationalist and misleading content is made viral. Why? Because it generates profit for BigTech. Accurate information is hidden under a pile of walls. Why? Because it does not generate profit for BigTech. We have all seen it. How can we change our society if we are consistently limited to hearing and reading only content making BigTech rich ?

Prioritising some voices and silencing others online is a very lucrative model Big Tech companies and governments take advantage of.

Companies will always prioritise their profit, which means only voices who generate profit are deemed worthy of exposure. This model is very convenient for governments, that want to silence political dissidents or hide events. By exploiting BigTech’s hunger for profts, governments can ask uncomfortable content to be randomly taken down.

We must prevent arbitrarily or abusive decisions regarding people’s online content and empower all to be able to raise our voices for social change

To do so, Big Tech Companies should not be the judge and jury of what can or can’t be online: this will only reinforce their power and prevent us from having real solutions and conversations. We must always leave courts to decide what’s legal and what’s not.

Governments and companies should invest in real solutions, centered on the needs of victims of online harms.

Let’s repair social issues with social means, not tech “fixes”.

We urge all those involved in scrutinising and passing legislation in Europe to stand on the side of the people you represent and defend our fundamental rights against abuses by Big Tech and overreaching governments alike, critically – the right to free speech for all.