<nettime> Why I Am Deleting My Myspace Account, and You Should Too

[lotu5 <lotu5@resist.ca>]

http://technotrannyslut.com/2008/12/31/why-i-am-deleting-my-myspace-account-and-you-should-too/

Today I am deleting all the content from my Myspace account and leaving 
only this notice. I've been inspired by the Franklin Street Statement 
and Identi.ca and I realize and a free/libre/open source internet is 
still possible, but it will require us to stop supporting corporate 
websites such as myspace. Here are some good reasons to delete your 
Myspace page, and support alternatives not run by corporations.

1. I'm tired of being free labor for the Fox corporation. The right wing 
Fox news corporation owns myspace, and I'm not going to support them any 
longer by giving them my content, my writing and images and information 
about who my friends are, for free. I don't support war, the way the Fox 
corporation has, and I don't want to provide them with more money to 
spread more pro-war propaganda. According to their license, Myspace has 
full rights to use my content things like advertisements for Myspace.

2. I actually care about my friends, and don't want to screw them over 
my making them a "friend" on Myspace. By using myspace, I'm forcing my 
friends to sign up for a corporate owned, ad ridden, heteronormative web 
service if they want to stay in touch with me. The way that we don't 
want to delete our accounts because we want to stay in touch with 
friends or fans of our bands just shows how dependent we already are on 
Myspace's corporate controlled environment. We're forced into a 
compulsory relationship we don't want because we want to "keep in touch" 
with our friends?

3. I'm tired up updating so many websites because Myspace refuses to be 
interoperable with other websites. Myspace and sites like it do not 
allow you to download your data or automatically send it to other social 
networking sites because they want to force you into the jail of their 
website. Why? Why don't we demand open social networking standards and 
the ability to download our own content?

4. I have a good Free/Libre/Open Source alternative, my own blog. You 
can read about what I'm up to at http://technotrannyslut.com , free of 
ads for bad movies and music, free of binary gender choices and 
heteronormative options for your relationships. Sites like Identi.ca 
provide ethical, non-corporate controlled alternatives to sites like 
Twitter. You can keep up with my status on Identi.ca, and sign up for 
your own microblog, here: http://identi.ca/djlotu5 Help create a well 
known list of alternatives like Identi.ca/Twitter , Opensim/Secondlife, 
if you now of any, by posting a comment here: 
http://technotrannyslut.com/2008/12/31/why-i-am-deleting-my-myspace-account-and-you-should-too/

Actually, even better than deleting your account, just delete all the 
content and post a notice like this one.

This is just the beginning, I'm planning on getting off of Facebook and 
other web services as well, and I hope you do too. We can have an 
internet that is Free/Libre/Open Source, but only if we stop supporting 
the corporate, locked down options we've been using all of these years. 
As these services become more a part of our lives and get into our 
phones and our everyday communications, it is critical that we fight for 
our freedom. The Free/Libre/Open Source movement needs to expand from 
just writing software, into creating networks of servers and services, 
like Indymedia has done for so many years. Software alone is not enough 
in a networked service ecology, where servers, cables, wireless 
networks, infrastructure that we all control is essential if we want 
freedom. I hope to see you back on the Free/Libre/Open Source internet. Bye.


-- 

gpg:  0x5B77079C // encrypted email preferred
gaim/skype: djlotu5 // off the record messaging preferred

blog: http://bang.calit2.net/tts


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