📌 Announcement on social media use
TFF and I, Jan Oberg, will change how we use social media from 2021 and onwards.
The change comes as a result of certain social media trends and events that we do not want to be part of (see arguments below).
We increasingly find Facebook, Twitter and Goggle a) politicising, b) part of a superficial culture bordering on the meaningless and c) an obstacle to genuine public education, freedom of speech and the global communication we have always cherished.
Therefore, in the future:
You will still see posts on Facebook and Twitter linking to our articles but only as window displays. We shall no longer participate in discussions there, only on our homepage, The Transnational, and under the articles.
We reclaim the essentially important free global public debate outside – and independent of – the near-monopoly that Facebook and Twitter cynically created and claim copyright to.
It’s only natural that the debates occur at the creator’s platform and remain there for people to see in the future.
During 2021, we speed up our efforts on LinkedIn, the Chinese WeChat, perhaps Russian VK and, later perhaps, Instagram (yes, Facebook-owned but to be explored) and also on TFF’s two Flipboard online magazines Transnational Peace Affairs and BootPrint – Militarism and Environment.
That’s where we hope you will follow us and warmly welcome your views.
Furthermore, TFF has moved from Google-owned YouTube to Vimeo. We use alternatives to Google Mail and Google Search such as Bing and DuckDuckGo as much as we can. We also do not use Facebook-owned WhatsApp (time to leave that too) or Messenger but Telegram instead.
Big Tech and powerful social media have grossly misused billions of people’s trust. They are likely to continue to decide what is politically correct and not, spy on us and censor us.
The day may come when they will close down those of us who work for peace, disarmament, nonviolence and other types of decency.
With this step, we hope to encourage others to consider their dependence on these unethical media.
TFF and I continue to be free, independent and undeterred – like we have been the last 35 years. That’s how we have built respect, trust and truthful research and public education.
We will in the future too.
When when you read it all, gathered at one place, I believe you’ll be surprised how these media treat you…
