5 big steps to digital freedom (Step 5)
Newsfeeds — cut out the middleman — here is how
Censorship by BigTech is a huge problem. It is more then Facebook and Twitter blocking or “fact checking” posts — or suspending or even banning users completely. It is also search engines like Google being selective of what sites they index and the type of content their algorithm pushes to the top of your search results. And then the information they present is more likely to go viral and be seen by many more people.
The reason why this is so important is many more people get there news online today then they do from the TV. In fact, as the graph below shows over half of people get there news online.
Now look at where online people are getting their news. 42% of 18–29 year olds get their news directly from Social Media. These young folk are our future. And I would be willing to bet, many of the people who say they get their news from news websites get to that site because somebody shared a news story with them on social media or the news site came up in search results.
And here are the social media platforms they use to get their news or to access those news websites
Which of the following social media sites would you trust not to censor or manipulate posts on their platform to support their agenda?
- Facebook?
- YouTube?
- Twitter?
- Instagram?
- Linkedin?
- Reddit?
- Snapchat?
- WhatsApp?
- Tumblr?
- Twitch?
- Tiktok?
None!!! If you said none, then you are in agreement with most people. Here is a quote from Pew Research
“Along with Facebook, Twitter and Reddit stand out as the sites where the highest proportion of users get news — 73% of Facebook’s users do so, as do 71% of Twitter’s and 62% of Reddit’s users. However, because Facebook’s overall pool of users is much larger than those of Twitter or Reddit, far more Americans overall get news on Facebook than on the other two sites.”
Elisa Shearer and Elizabeth Grieco, Pew Research Center
Can we trust Google to find the news for us?
I think you already know the answer to this, but just in case checkout what they have been doing to some conservative news sites:
“Google Has Diminished Breitbart Search Results 99.7%”
“NBC reported that Google confirmed it financially blacklisted two sites known for criticism of the left: conservative commentary site the Federalist and alternative news site ZeroHedge.”
“both websites will now be unable to generate advertising revenue using Google Ads, by far the most important service for any website trying to generate digital advertising revenue.”
“admitting that it (Google) and other tech giants “shifted towards censorship” after 2016.”
“leaked confirmed that Google-owned YouTube adjusted search results in a manner that de-ranked conservative videos and boosted the mainstream media.”
BigTech is brainwashing us
Even though we know intuitively, we cannot trust the information they are putting in front of us to be accurate, fair, or even representative — research has shown over time this repeated exposure to biased information slowly but surely brainwashes a big percentage of us.
Let’s not play the victim, let’s do something about it
What BigTech is doing is wrong. They shouldn’t do it. They should stop . . . but less face it, if we sit around waiting for a politician (who BigTech probably donates to) to fix this, we are going to be waiting a very long time.
Here is what YOU can do right now
Yes, I am going to tell you how to cut BigTech out of the equation — to have the information flow directly from news sources you trust to you, without any censorship or manipulation from BigTech
RSS Feeds — lets start using them again
As you can see from the graph above, RSS Feeds used to be really popular. What happened?
Well as social media took off, people found it more convenient to get their news from their social media news feed. And back then we were not aware that BigTech were censoring and manipulating us like they seem to be today.
In fact, Google had the most popular RSS reader. It was called Google Reader and Google discontinued it. Why? Many believe it was to force users onto their Social Media platform they were launching called Google+
“Google Reader used to be the pinnacle of RSS news consumption before it was discontinued in 2013, and many people are still bitter about its demise.”
Some people say we are heading towards Communism and Marxism if we continue on our current path — for that reason I think we should learn something from the countries where RSS Readers are most popular today.
China is #1 and Cuba is #3. What do those countries have in common? Yep Communist Marxist Totalitarian regimes that heavily censor their population and engage is massive propaganda campaigns. People in China and Cuba want to know they can get their news and information from sources they can trust and RSS Readers are the way they can do it. Let’s learn from them and start using RSS Readers again. We will be better informed and Mark Zuckerburg and Co will lose a lot of advertising revenue — that advertising revenue will instead flow directly to the information sources we trust so they can continue to provide accurate honest information.
Here is the Good News!
RSS still works — it is just waiting for people like you to start using it again. Here is how.
- Download a RSS Reader
- Copy and paste the urls from the websites you trust into your RSS Reader
- Enjoy
What RSS Reader should you use?
There are lots to choose from. I use Feeds on Linux Mint, but here are some links with reviews of different options you can choose from:
Do all websites have an RSS Feed?
No, as the popularity of RSS fell off, some sites stopped turning their RSS Feed on, but it is easy to do — normally it is just a radio button option they have to turn on in the content management system that runs their site. So if your favorite sites, do not have an RSS Feed, reach out and ask them to turn it on.
How do I add my trusted source to my RSS Reader?
Typically there will be a plus button on your RSS Reader. You just click it and copy and paste the url of the website you want to add and then click the refresh button and the stories will start appearing. Here are a few to try:
And here is the kicker
Google recently announced they are building an RSS Reader into their Chrome Browser. I guess since Google+ did not work out for them and they were not able to force you to use their social media product, they figured they would start supporting RSS again.
So that should encourage more websites to turn their RSS Feeds back on as well. But I would not use Google Chrome to read your RSS Feed because I would not trust them not to manipulate the way results appear or exclude certain stories they do not agree with either now or in the future.
Go download your RSS Reader now!!!
And take quiet enjoyment as you read your RSS news stories over your cup of coffee of al the advertising dollars Facebook et. al. are not earning.
The 5 Big Steps to Digital Freedom
- Protect your IP Address (it can be used to track you and also link all your computer activity together)
- Store you email and photos, videos, files at home instead of with Gmail or on Google Drive or One Drive
- Started using Linux as your preferred operating system helping break the stranglehold of Microsoft and Apple
- Ditched the iPhone for a degoogled phone
- Established newsfeeds direct from your trusted sites using RSS Readers. Giving you communication channels independent of Big Tech and Social Media.
- Extra Bonus Step — Can now charge you cell phone safely, keep spying eyes out of your camera, protect your password and valuable docs, and finally probably never use an anti-virus product again.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
Writer and family members do not hold any financial interest in the businesses manufacturing, developing, and/or selling any of the products or services mentioned in this article. Nor are we compensated in any way e.g. commission or affiliate program if you decide to purchase these products or services.
5 big steps to digital freedom (Step 5) (text only — excluding videos and images) © 2021 by Beating Big Tech is licensed under CC BY 4.0
