"Save Social" petition calls for support for alternative social networks
One hundred prominent supporters have launched a petition to break the monopoly of the established social networks and promote alternative platforms.
(Image: Save Social)
Almost one hundred players from the worlds of culture, business and media have launched a petition calling for greater support for alternative social networks in order to break the dominance of the large IT companies. The demands of the "Save Social" petition under the slogan "Take back the Internet" are aimed at party leaders and parliamentary group chairmen as well as the prime ministers. They demand that existing alternative open platforms be supported and filled with content produced with public funds.
They are fundamentally calling for alternative platforms with decentralized structures, such as Mastodon, to be supplied with more content. In this way, democracy could be strengthened and social exchange promoted, while the opinion power of the corporations Meta, X and Byte Dance (TikTok) should be reduced. Public institutions such as politics, universities and public broadcasting should produce content for these alternatives with the same effort as they do for Instagram and YouTube. The main points of criticism of the established platforms are the non-transparent algorithms, the sole focus on user attention and the flood of disinformation.
Also relevant for the initiators is the fact that, according to them, journalism is becoming a loss-making business and the companies are taking any advertising revenue for themselves. This leads to media professionals having to subordinate themselves to the platforms, creating a dependency. The petition states that the ever-evolving generative AI is a factor that is accelerating these developments.
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Specifically, the ten demands are as follows:
- We strengthen alternatives with good content
- We strengthen alternatives structurally
- We invest in the development and usability of alternatives
- We enable offers oriented towards the common good
- We improve media education
- We create diversity and transparency
- We open up platforms
- We enable visibility
- We give communities real meaning
- Those who earn money with content must take responsibility
Among the most prominent signatories of the petition are musician Jan Delay, author Marc-Uwe Kling and journalist Nadia Zaboura. In addition to a number of well-known personalities, the project is also supported by the German Journalists' Association and the German Journalists' Union. A total of 35,000 supporters are being sought for the project.
(tlz)
