We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to unfck the internet. We should take it. How we talk, work, and play online depends on it.
Dramatic? No, Kardashians is dramatic. The truth is we have more than a few problems to deal with. A whole sh*tton of how we communicate is controlled by a few centi-billionaires. That’s a new word for all of us: centi-billionaire. It means worth over $100 billion USD. Each.
Social networks are using us as much as we use them. They slice and dice us into categories to get micro-targeted. Newsflash: people aren’t “targets” and it’s not cool to create little bubbles.
Oh and security. If you’re sick of reading about — and getting caught in — one data breach after another, we feel you.
If you want to get out of this mess, we are with you. Mozilla, the not-for-profit behind Firefox, was purpose-built to make the internet what it can be: an open tool for everyone — the powerful and the weak, the right and the left, everyone.
This is How We Unfck the Internet
Unlike every politician who answers every crisis with a five-point plan, ours isn’t a CYA. We don’t do politics. We do one thing: Build a better internet. Here’s what we think is needed to get the job done.
DEPENDABLE SECURITY
People deserve to feel safe with the knowledge that their personal information is shielded from hackers, spies and strangers. Let’s Encrypt, an alliance Mozilla helped found, now delivers greater security to over 85% of web transactions — while adding the “s” in “https://” — proving that security is possible on a large scale. With security comes trust, and trust will be the bedrock of a better internet.
FAIR TRADE DATA
Today big tech companies use data to target us with advertising, governments use it to surveil, and machine learning tools extract all the stuff. Mozilla takes less data (Read our Promise.) An unfcked internet means a new bargain. Personal information will get used for our own good or the benefit of our communities, not against us.
TRUSTED CONTENT
Trust what you see and decide for yourself. Not a crazy idea, right? Change the incentives for the platforms and bring better content choices to us. This is what Mozilla’s Pocket does. Contextual recommendations, not behavioral targeting. Just people. On an unfcked internet, companies will bear their fair share of responsibility for identifying and responding to bad people.
ONLINE RESPECT
More kindness, less blaming. We believe in it so much that we left Facebook over privacy and will stay away until it can #stophateforprofit. On an unfcked internet, platforms will create incentives to stop fomenting conflict that traps us in a closed loop of negativity, degrades conversation and is a breeding ground for deadly violence. Build community standards and enforce them.
UNIVERSAL ACCESS
Connect to the internet, get access to the world. Too many people don’t have this option. Mozilla supports Fellows who work on infrastructure, policy and countless other issues to make the web more equitable. To make an unfcked internet, leaders and corporations need to collaborate to provide options that serve school, work, opportunity, and human connection.
It’s go time
We need everyone to make this work — us, you, them. Businesses need to stand up and commit to practices that put people first. Governments need to recognize their role in shaping the networks that connect the world. And people need to push them.
For more ways you can unfck the system, please visit here.
