You guys have joined the party - and that’s the most important thing I can share in a newsletter!
Sure, I’m still going to share news and updates, but the focus this time around will be the ‘What you’ve done’ section. This is meant to be an action campaign, so action will always take priority!
The UK is bringing in a teen social media ban! This follows a similar move by Australia a few months ago. You can read about the British plans on the government website here. Whether this is a good or a bad thing for digital coercion will come down to the implementation but, as I wrote earlier this year, I hope it will help turn around the Silicon Valley narrative that we ought to worship everything smartphone.
Here’s some good news I missed back in January: A Berlin court ruled that showing one’s ‘Deutschlandticket’ to conductors in paper form is valid. It is sad that something so darn obvious should come to legal proceedings, but Germany had been quite relentless in trying to insist that only app/smartphone versions of the ticket were available. Anyway, be encouraged to fight this sort of thing where you live - by any legal means available! No court with an ounce of integrity, anywhere in the world, can rule that smartphone ownership is compulsory for essential services.
News recently landed that, ‘From 1 July 2026, travellers entering or leaving South Africa must submit their traveller declaration online before they travel, unless they qualify for one of the limited paper-based exceptions.’ Why should paper be the exception and why should you need to ‘qualify’ for it? Judging by social media comments, many are upset about being given online homework to enter their own country. But not to worry! In the FAQs we find proof that the word ‘must’ is just a scare tactic. ‘Travellers will not be denied entry into or departure from South Africa solely because they have not completed a declaration before arriving at a port of entry. Customs officials, supported by self-service declaration terminals, will be available to assist travellers who were unable to submit their declarations before travelling.’
This is a perfect example of how, when we dig deeper, the scary word ‘must’ is anything but. Please, please, please don’t fill out this online form. If fighting digital coercion isn’t enough of a reason, maybe saving the jobs of those customs officials working in a country with rampant unemployment is?
Into podcasts? I’m finding The Interface quite useful in terms of keeping up with scary tech trends. It’s a BBC production staffed, as far as I can tell, by proper journalists rather than hysterical shouters. There’s some encouraging chat in the 25 June episode, from the 22-minute mark. The conversation, from which I’ve pulled a quote below, was inspired by a Guardian article about how AI is turning us all into gig workers without rights, protections and benefits. Maybe you can find some inspiration to take action here?
“There are many different examples now of ways that workers are coming together, unionising or engaging in other forms of protest to stall and even reverse these trends…workers are realising that there is agency left and they don’t just have to accept the enshittification of their jobs.”
It’s ironic that this bill about university teachers having to be human (!) is on the table in, of all places, California. Aka the heartland of Artificial Intelligence. It doesn’t go far enough in my opinion, but every step helps.
I got my new British passport - without using the internet! I had to use three separate carrier pigeons to get around the Vienna consulate’s refusal to do basic consulate stuff like passport applications, as well as the government’s stubborn insistence that applications happen online… but if you’re pig-headed enough, many things are possible! On the to-do list: a formal complaint to any channels I can find, with an emphasis on discrimination and accessibility. Because my resistance - just like yours - only makes sense if it is communicated.
In case you missed it, I recently wrote about the pitfalls of framing the digital coercion fight as an issue for the elderly:
A shout-out to Julia T. for handing in her Austrian tax declaration by means of a paper form a few weeks back. Here’s the original inspiration for her act of resistance.
Big thanks to Dagmar J. for writing directly to the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and asking uncomfortable questions about discrimination. The email text is below. If you don’t speak German, the basic gist is that digital/app tickets are cheaper than paper tickets, which could be interpreted as discriminatory. She’s yet to receive a satisfactory answer, and is being passed around the departments, so stay tuned for news on this one!
Thanks to Andrew M. in Maine for his willingness to help me figure out some kind of social media execution plan for this campaign. We’re both battling for time, though, so more hands on deck are welcome for this task!
S.M. Pokrovsky has also been lending me terrific support from Carolina, and wrote a guest post about the small successes he has had fighting digital coercion in the corporate environment.
Cheers also to Duncan B. for sending me this photo of a tea room in London that encourages cash, going so far as to offer a discount. It’s already been added to The Good Guys list - our growing database of ethical places for offline rights activists to take their business!
To those who answered my call to sign up for Substack accounts, thank you! I know, signups and passwords are a pain in the elbow, but I really need your likes, shares and comments to reach a wider community.
LAST CHANCE to sign my UK petition! It closes on July 15th - that’s tomorrow! If you’re not a citizen, please send the link to somebody who is :)
See “Things I’ve done” and “Things you’ve done” above, as well as my previous updates via the website/archive! These are not meant to be diary entries. They’re meant to be concrete, real-world action ideas you can flagrantly copy.
Write online reviews and complain to regulators/MPs! Businesses/institutions refusing cash? Forcing you to talk to bots? Demanding an app? Make a noise and send me a screenshot of your noise.
Send me ideas for The Boycott List and The Good Guys list! Look outside your window, or scan your inbox, and you’ll probably get inspiration right away. Snap a picture if you can. Sending me a message can take mere seconds.
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