Be Sure To Know How To Contact Allies In Political Crisis-Social Media Unreliable

Every so often I make the point here that we should be collecting e-mail addresses, phone numbers and whatever contact information we need of the activists and colleagues we would count on in an authoritarian situation. 

The social media landscape is hostile to the Democratic Party, the center-left and the left. I mention all three (overlapping) categories here because there is little distinction between how they are treated on big social media platforms.  (Or how they will be treated under Donald Trump.)

Twitter is run by the far right-winger Elon Musk.  He's moved Twitter to the right. It'll be a fully unreliable network in a political crisis brought about by the right.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram, has made it much more difficult to share and get an audience for political content. That's a restriction not likely to be lifted in the midst of a political struggle and when doing so would anger one side or the other.       

I'm old enough to recall all the utopia talk of how the internet would open up the world and bring us all together. I can't say it really looks like that is what happened. Be certain to know how you can reach friends and allies when Republicans are refusing to accept election results or are delivering the violence and authoritarianism they promise. You'll want to keep in touch with folks you know you can rely on. 
 
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