⌘ Ctrl + Alt + Reclaim ⌘

A Youth Manifesto for our Digital World.

As the first generation to grow up online, we understand all that the internet can bring: community and connection across continents and cultures, participation in movements that can change the world, instant access to information and services on a scale never dreamed of in history.

But a tiny group of CEOs have taken this gift, this product of collective creativity – and claimed it for themselves. They’ve commandeered its networks; walled in its profits; built vast, opaque monopolies that answer to no one. And in the process, they’ve put our lives at risk. Here’s how:

• Their algorithms are addictive by design, purposefully crafted to suck us in and keep us there; conditioning our minds so we open their apps without fully wanting to; trapping our attention with tightly tailored, toxic feeds that sap our self-esteem along with our time and energy.
• Their platforms are harmful, subjecting us to hour after hour, day after day of hate, disinformation, rage, violence and spam, overwhelming our abilities to process our emotions and maintain our wellbeing.
• Their business model is intrusive, invading our lives with the biggest surveillance operation in history – finding our deepest secrets, sitting in on our private moments, plundering our hopes, our neuroses, our darkest fears and turning our lives into data to be profited from.

We may be the first generation to live our whole lives as ‘profiles’ to extract data from, but we’re here to say we will be the last. We are ready to reclaim our digital world.

We’ve got plans for a world where we - the users - come first, not tech bro’s profits. Where social media is safe, inclusive and easy to step away from. Where community and connection are promoted above outrage and division. Where the details of our lives belong to only us.

This is the world we all want. This is how we make it real. From today, and every day we will be fighting for:

• Healthy feeds. Let’s force Big Tech to disclose how they design their algorithms and use our data, so we can swap addiction for enrichment.
• Choice and diversity. Let’s take action to break open the Big Tech monopolies so we can build the respectful, safe and empowering social media we really want.
• Trust and privacy. Let’s win strong laws to safeguard our personal data and restore our boundaries so when we go online it’s for us and us alone.

This is our time: Join the movement. Decide your own future.