It's a good day to get a VPN
Get a VPN
Because it’s a day where things are cheaper, it’s a very good time to take one of the most widely-recommended digital security steps. Though they don’t make you completely anonymous, VPNs do vastly expand your privacy toolkit (and let you access region-locked content).
As much as my recommendation is worth, I use Proton and it’s easy to manage on both my laptop and my phone; otherwise I’ll list some of biggest names here. They are not affiliate links because I do not know how to make those.
- Surfshark: Starter package is $53.76 for 24 months. ($2.32/mo)
- Nord VPN: Standard package is $80.73 for 24 months. ($3.36/mo)
- Proton VPN: $119.70 gets you 30 months. ($3.99/mo)
- ExpressVPN: 15 months for $99.95. ($6.67/mo)
- Mullvad: Not running a Black Friday sale—always €5/mo—but very privacy-promoting (you can pay with cash!).
We are in a rather unfortunate moment in online history. Age-verification laws are spreading like wildfire, creating dozens of fragmented Internets. A VPN doesn’t solve that problem, but it does give you a lot more freedom to move around.
What’s on in campaign-land
It’s been a while since I looked across Fight for the Future’s campaign portfolio, so Caitlin helped me pull together all of our current work. This is also a good overview of many active digital rights fights in the US.
Meta’s biased content moderation policies are silencing Palestinians online. This campaign targets one of the biggest speech gatekeepers to stop the erasure of Palestinian content during an ongoing and escalating humanitarian crisis.
We are still fighting KOSA and others of the most censorious, toxic internet bills. Learn about these fights—years of organizing has gone into them—and take action here.
This is our optimist’s manifesto! Besides fighting Bad Internet Bills, we’re calling for Good Internet Bills that protect privacy, digital rights, and free speech online. The letter campaign is paired with new videos in partnership with Exposure Labs (the studio behind “The Social Dilemma” and “Chasing Ice”).
Stop Harmful Government Use of AI
The Biden administration has released a draft proposals for how the government will manage AI. We’re using this moment to call out the most harmful possibilities for governmental AI use. This tool submits a comment calling for privacy and rights protections; we’re trying to stop the AI industry from dominating the conversation.
We have a full FCC and they’re moving forward plans to restore net neutrality. Make sure they get the message: submit a comment to the Commission here.
Happy Thanksgiving! The amazing Evan Greer is in Welcome to Hellworld today. The thumbnail is a heat-coil sculpture in Place des Fleurs-de-Macadam in Montreal; in the summer it’s a cloud.
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