Dear Civil Societies, Journalists, and Fact-Checkers — It’s Time to Mobilize People to Leave Big Tech Social Media Behind

By now, it's no secret that the big tech social media platforms—Twitter (now X), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok—are broken. What was once hailed as a digital revolution in communication has become a battleground for misinformation, propaganda, and ideological polarization. These platforms are not neutral—they are algorithmically engineered to amplify outrage, deepen confirmation bias, and keep users addicted.

If you're someone who values truth, rationality, and democratic discourse, staying on these platforms is not just ineffective—it’s counterproductive.

The Algorithmic Trap

Let me tell you what happens when you engage with these platforms even slightly. Try liking or retweeting one pro-government post on Twitter. Suddenly, your feed becomes all about hyper-nationalist propaganda. If you express any mild criticism of a religious group—say, Muslims—you’ll find yourself drowning in Islamophobic content within hours.

This isn’t coincidence. It’s by design.

These algorithms are built to maximize engagement, not truth or civility. They push users toward extremes because extreme views generate more clicks, shares, and reactions. Confirmation bias—the human tendency to seek out information that supports our existing beliefs—is weaponized at scale.

And here’s the kicker: fact-checking doesn't work in this environment.

Why Fact-Checking Fails on Big Tech Platforms

Fact-checking assumes a level playing field where people are open to changing their minds when presented with evidence. But on these platforms, facts don’t matter as much as emotions. Misinformation spreads six times faster than truth, and once something goes viral, corrections rarely catch up.

Civil societies, journalists, and fact-checkers continue to operate within these systems, trying to debunk lies and provide context. But they’re fighting a losing battle. Every time they respond to misinformation, the algorithm rewards the original lie with more visibility.

Remaining on these platforms under the illusion that we can "correct" the narrative is a disservice to public discourse.

We Are in an Information War

We must stop pretending that this is just about bad actors or rogue accounts. We are in a full-blown information war, waged by both state and non-state actors, using sophisticated tools of manipulation and surveillance. Authoritarian regimes have mastered the art of flooding these platforms with propaganda, while democratic voices struggle to be heard over the noise.

Big Tech companies, despite their promises of transparency and accountability, are complicit. Their business models depend on keeping users engaged—even if that means radicalizing them.

So what’s the solution?

It’s Time to Walk Away — And Build Something Better

The only way forward is to abandon these toxic platforms and move to decentralized alternatives that prioritize user control, free speech, and resistance to censorship.

One such platform is Bluesky.

Unlike Twitter or Facebook, Bluesky is built on an open protocol (AT Protocol), which means it is not owned or controlled by any single corporation. Users can choose from multiple apps to access the network, and developers can build their own interfaces and moderation tools.

With Bluesky:

• You control your feed. You can use apps like Graze.Social to create feeds in minutes.
• You can host your own server or join community-run servers, making it resilient to authoritarian censorship.
• Moderation is decentralized and transparent, allowing communities to self-govern without relying on opaque corporate policies.
• Disinformation struggles to thrive in a system where users—not algorithms—decide what content to see.

This is not just a technical upgrade—it’s a philosophical shift. It’s about reclaiming the internet as a space for open dialogue, critical thinking, and democratic participation.

There is no future in disinformation

It feels like utter darkness, full of chaos. Is it the second law of thermodynamics leading us to collapse, or will a new order emerge? To be very clear, there is no future in disinformation. It’s all chaos—fragmented, with conflicting realities and no collective action toward order. It's better to quit big tech social media early; otherwise, we face collapse.

This is how conflicting realities spread though fake accounts:

e.g. ANI strike of copyright. Such posts are filled in X.

Switch to free and open-source (FOSS), decentralized systems

There are FOSS-based social media platforms available—Bluesky and Mastodon for social networking, and LBRY as a YouTube alternative. These are not walled gardens; you can easily switch between systems or apps. You can build on them, improve them, and customize them as people wish—because they are FOSS protocol.

A Call to Action

To civil societies, journalists, and fact-checkers: your presence on Big Tech platforms legitimizes a system designed to distort reality. Your efforts are being drowned out by algorithms that favor sensationalism over truth.

It’s time to take a stand—not just by speaking truth to power, but by building new spaces where truth can survive.

Let’s stop playing on a rigged field. Let’s move to decentralized platforms like Bluesky, where we can create communities based on trust, transparency, and mutual respect.

The future of informed democracy depends on it.