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content/articles/digital-self-determination/index.md

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 title: Digital Self-Determination
 date: 2025-07-06
-summary: Digital self-determination is essential for individuals, communities, and civil society organizations to maintain control over their digital lives. This article explores the importance of digital self-determination, the threats it faces, and practical steps toward achieving it.
+summary: What becomes possible when you control your own digital life? Digital self-determination means having genuine authority over your data, your tools, and the spaces where you connect with others.
 featureImageCaption: "Photo by <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/@lemonvlad?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash\">Vladislav Klapin</a> on <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/photos/assorted-flag-YeO44yVTl20?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash\">Unsplash</a>"
 aliases:
 - /articles/why-digital-sovereignty-matters/
 updated: 2025-07-06
+draft: True
 ---
 
-## What is digital self-determination?
+## What does it mean to own your digital life?
 
-Digital self-determination is the ability of individuals, communities, and organizations to exercise meaningful control over their digital lives. It means having genuine authority over your data, the software you use, and the infrastructure that powers your online activities.
+Imagine a neighborhood where the community center, the bulletin board, and the mailboxes all belonged to the neighbors themselves. Where the rules were set by the people who lived there. Where no distant landlord could suddenly change the terms, raise the rent, or read everyone's mail.
 
-True digital self-determination includes:
+That's what digital self-determination looks like.
 
-- **Data control**: Determining what information you share, with whom, and under what conditions.
-- **Software freedom**: Using, examining, modifying, and sharing the code that runs your digital tools.
-- **Infrastructure ownership**: Having the ability to operate your own servers and services.
-- **Knowledge access**: Understanding how your technology works and being able to make informed choices.
-- **Governance participation**: Having a voice in how digital systems are designed and regulated.
+Digital self-determination is the ability to exercise meaningful control over your digital life—your data, your tools, and the spaces where you connect with others. It means:
 
-Digital self-determination exists on a spectrum from complete dependency to full autonomy. The Civil Society Technology Foundation works toward shifting the balance away from centralized control and toward individual and community empowerment.
+- **Your data is yours.** You decide what to share, with whom, and under what conditions.
+- **Your tools work for you.** The software you use can be examined, modified, and shared.
+- **Your space belongs to you.** You can run your own services on infrastructure you control.
+- **You understand how things work.** You have the knowledge to make informed choices.
+- **You have a voice.** You participate in decisions about the technology that affects your life.
 
-## The threat to digital self-determination
+This isn't all-or-nothing. Digital self-determination exists on a spectrum, and every step toward greater ownership is worthwhile.
 
-Most people today have very little digital self-determination. Consider your typical online experience:
+## What becomes possible
 
-- Your personal information is collected, analyzed, and monetized by corporations without meaningful consent.
-- The software you use is controlled by distant companies that can change terms, features, or access at any time.
-- Your content and connections depend on platforms that can censor, amplify, or de-rank what you share.
-- Critical services like email, calendars, and file storage are hosted on corporate infrastructure that you cannot inspect or control.
-- Algorithms shape what you see and how you communicate in ways designed to maximize corporate profit.
-
-This lack of self-determination is not accidental--it's the result of business models and regulatory environments that incentivize centralization and data extraction. The trend toward concentration has accelerated as digital technology has become essential to nearly every aspect of modern life.
-
-## Individuals need digital self-determination
-
-For individuals, digital self-determination affects fundamental aspects of daily life:
-
-### Privacy and security
-
-Without digital self-determination, your personal information becomes vulnerable to exploitation. Your browsing history, location data, and private communications transform into corporate assets, traded and monetized without meaningful consent. Intimate details of your life face constant exposure through data breaches and surveillance, creating a permanent digital record that can be weaponized against you at any time.
-
-Digital self-determination changes this dynamic fundamentally. When you control your digital infrastructure, you determine what information you share and with whom. Encryption and privacy-preserving tools become standard practice rather than specialized knowledge. You can maintain clear boundaries between different aspects of your digital life, protecting both your current privacy and your future autonomy.
-
-### Personal autonomy
-
-Without digital self-determination, your choices become systematically constrained by forces beyond your control. Algorithms shape not just what information you see, but what options appear available to you. Design patterns constantly nudge you toward behaviors that benefit platforms rather than yourself, while essential tasks increasingly require surrendering privacy as the price of participation.
-
-Digital self-determination restores meaningful choice to your daily life. You can make decisions based on diverse information sources that you've actively chosen rather than algorithmic curation. Your tools serve your needs rather than exploiting your attention for profit. Most importantly, you can participate fully in digital society without surrendering your fundamental rights or personal dignity.
-
-### Economic security
-
-Without digital self-determination, you face growing economic vulnerabilities in an increasingly digital economy. Your skills and livelihood become dependent on proprietary platforms that can change terms or revoke access arbitrarily. Economic opportunities remain subject to the whims of platform policies, while the value you create online flows primarily to distant corporate owners rather than building your own wealth or community resources.
-
-Digital self-determination builds genuine economic resilience. You develop portable skills that transcend any specific corporate platform, ensuring your capabilities remain valuable regardless of technological shifts. You can create and connect through systems you help govern, participating in cooperative economic models that distribute value more equitably among those who generate it.
-
-## Communities need digital self-determination
-
-Communities, from local neighborhoods to identity groups to civil society organizations, face particular challenges in the digital age.
-
-### Community autonomy
-
-Without digital self-determination, communities lose fundamental autonomy as their governance structures become subordinated to platform rules and algorithms. Local knowledge and cultural context get systematically flattened by global platforms designed for mass consumption rather than community specificity. Meanwhile, community resources flow steadily toward distant corporations instead of circulating locally to strengthen community bonds and capacity.
-
-Digital self-determination enables communities to truly thrive on their own terms. They can design digital spaces that authentically reflect local values and meet specific community needs. Community standards and practices remain intact without corporate override or algorithmic interference. Most importantly, digital infrastructure becomes a genuine community asset that builds collective wealth and capacity rather than extracting value.
-
-### Resilience against censorship
-
-Without digital self-determination, communities face systematic silencing through mechanisms that appear neutral but consistently harm marginalized voices. Platform policies regularly restrict legitimate speech, with enforcement patterns that disproportionately affect those with the least institutional power. Commercial content moderation systems cannot possibly reflect the nuance and context of diverse community standards, leading to decisions that undermine rather than protect community discourse.
-
-Digital self-determination preserves community voice through infrastructure independence. Communities can operate their own communication systems that resist external censorship while developing content moderation approaches appropriate to their specific context and values. They maintain fallback channels that cannot be easily blocked, ensuring continuity of communication even under pressure.
-
-### Collective memory
-
-Without digital self-determination, community history becomes dangerously precarious as it depends entirely on corporate platforms with their own priorities and lifespans. When platforms shut down or change direction, they take irreplaceable community archives with them. Algorithmic sorting continuously buries historically important content, while corporate priorities rather than community values determine what gets preserved for future generations.
-
-Digital self-determination strengthens cultural continuity by giving communities control over their own historical record. They can maintain archives and documentation according to their own standards and priorities. Knowledge transfer between generations happens on community terms rather than through corporate intermediaries. Digital artifacts remain accessible and meaningful even as underlying technologies evolve, ensuring that community memory persists across technological transitions.
-
-## Civil society needs digital self-determination
-
-For the non-profit and non-governmental bodies that form the backbone of democratic society, digital self-determination is particularly crucial.
-
-### Independence from corporate control
-
-Without digital self-determination, civil society becomes fundamentally compromised in its mission and effectiveness. NGOs find themselves forced to accept surveillance and data extraction as the price of accessing essential digital tools, undermining their ability to protect the communities they serve. Advocacy organizations become dependent on platforms that may actively oppose their values, while corporate philanthropy increasingly shapes which digital infrastructure gets built, prioritizing donor interests over community needs.
-
-Digital self-determination allows civil society to maintain its integrity and independence. Organizations can choose and use tools that genuinely align with their mission and values rather than contradicting them. Advocacy work can proceed without platform-imposed limitations that undermine effectiveness, while infrastructure development responds to actual community needs rather than market incentives or corporate priorities.
-
-### Operational security
-
-Without digital self-determination, civil society organizations face escalating security risks that threaten their core work. Sensitive communications and confidential data must reside on vulnerable commercial platforms designed for profit rather than protection. Critical organizational workflows become dependent on services that can be withdrawn or modified without notice, while organizational data gets integrated into commercial AI training sets without consent or oversight.
-
-Digital self-determination dramatically improves operational security by returning control to the organizations themselves. They can maintain direct oversight of sensitive information rather than trusting corporate intermediaries. Communication channels become resistant to surveillance and interference, while infrastructure resilience protects against both technical disruption and political pressure.
-
-### Ethical alignment
-
-Without digital self-determination, civil society faces deep contradictions that undermine moral authority and organizational effectiveness. Organizations advocating for human rights often find themselves using tools that systematically violate those same rights. Digital workflows frequently contradict stated organizational values, while resource dependencies on extractive platforms compromise advocacy positions and limit strategic options.
-
-Digital self-determination enables authentic alignment between values and practice. Technology choices can reflect and actively reinforce organizational principles rather than undermining them. Digital infrastructure embodies the world organizations are working to create, demonstrating alternative possibilities rather than perpetuating existing problems. Most importantly, consistency between means and ends strengthens moral authority and makes advocacy more credible and effective.
-
-## The path to digital self-determination
-
-Achieving greater digital self-determination isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. It's a journey with practical steps that individuals and organizations can take.
+When individuals and communities take ownership of their digital lives, wonderful things happen.
 
 ### For individuals
 
-1. **Start with awareness**: Learn how your current tools work and what alternatives exist.
-2. **Make incremental changes**: Replace proprietary services with open alternatives one by one.
-3. **Join communities of practice**: Connect with others on similar journeys.
-4. **Develop technical literacy**: Build skills to maintain more of your own technology.
-5. **Support and advocate**: Contribute to projects and policies that promote digital self-determination.
+**You get to be yourself.** When you control your own digital space, you're not performing for algorithms or being nudged toward behaviors that benefit someone else. You can use technology intentionally, in ways that actually serve your life.
+
+**Your privacy is real.** Your browsing history, your location, your private conversations—these stay private because you control the infrastructure. There's no business model built on surveilling you.
+
+**You build lasting skills.** Understanding how your technology works is empowering. People who start maintaining their own email server often discover they can learn far more than they imagined. Technical literacy is a gift you give yourself.
+
+**You're not dependent.** When you run your own services, no company can suddenly change the terms, shut down a product you rely on, or lock you out of your own data.
+
+### For communities
+
+**Neighbors meet each other.** Something magical happens when communities build technology together. In Detroit, people setting up community wireless networks report meeting more neighbors in a few months than in years of living there. The technology becomes an excuse for connection.
+
+**Local needs get met.** When a community builds its own tools, those tools can reflect local values, languages, and priorities. Indigenous communities are using self-hosted platforms to preserve languages and cultural practices on their own terms. Neighborhood groups can design spaces that work for their specific context.
+
+**Resources stay local.** Instead of subscription fees flowing to distant corporations, communities invest in their own infrastructure and each other. The money and skills stay in the community.
+
+**Resilience grows.** Communities that control their own technology can't be cut off by a platform's policy change or a company's business decision. Their communication channels, their archives, their shared spaces persist because they own them.
+
+**Trust deepens.** When community members can see how their tools work and participate in decisions about them, trust grows. There's no black box, no hidden algorithm, no mysterious moderation decisions from afar.
 
 ### For organizations
 
-1. **Audit current dependencies**: Understand where you lack digital self-determination.
-2. **Prioritize critical systems**: Focus first on communications and sensitive data.
-3. **Invest in capacity**: Build technical skills within your organization.
-4. **Build community infrastructure**: Partner with similar organizations to share resources.
-5. **Center self-determination in planning**: Make digital autonomy a strategic priority.
+**Your mission stays intact.** Organizations working on sensitive issues—human rights, public health, political reform—can operate without contradicting their values by depending on surveillance-based platforms.
 
-The Civil Society Technology Foundation's [Wild Cloud project](/projects/wild-cloud) provides a reference implementation for individuals, communities, and organizations seeking to regain digital self-determination. It demonstrates that practical steps toward greater independence are possible today, even with limited resources.
+**Your security improves.** When you control your infrastructure, you control your security. Sensitive communications and confidential data stay on systems you manage, not on platforms designed for other purposes.
 
-## Conclusion
+**Your costs become predictable.** Self-hosted infrastructure often costs less over time than endless subscriptions, and you're not subject to sudden price increases or service changes.
 
-Digital self-determination isn't a luxury, it's increasingly essential for meaningful participation in society, for the health of communities, and for the independence of civil society. As digital technology becomes more deeply embedded in every aspect of our lives, the question of who controls that technology becomes more urgent.
+**Your work continues.** Organizations that run their own infrastructure can't be silenced by a platform deciding they violate terms of service. Your ability to communicate and organize doesn't depend on anyone else's permission.
 
-The challenges are significant, but practical alternatives exist. By taking incremental steps toward greater self-determination, we can build a digital future that enhances rather than undermines human agency, community resilience, and democratic values.
+## How to begin
 
-Digital self-determination matters because it determines whether technology will serve as a tool of liberation or a mechanism of control. The choice between these futures is still ours to make--if we act with purpose and clarity about what's at stake.
+Taking ownership of your digital life is a journey, not a destination. Here are some ways to start.
+
+### Small steps for individuals
+
+**Get curious.** Start noticing which services you depend on and who controls them. What would happen if they disappeared tomorrow?
+
+**Try one thing.** Pick a single service—maybe a password manager, maybe a note-taking app—and try an open-source, self-hosted alternative. See how it feels.
+
+**Find your people.** Connect with others on similar journeys. Communities of practice make everything easier and more fun.
+
+**Learn as you go.** You don't need to become an expert before you start. Every bit of understanding you gain is valuable.
+
+### Steps for organizations
+
+**Start with what matters most.** What communications or data would be most damaging if compromised? That's where to focus first.
+
+**Build capacity gradually.** Invest in technical skills within your organization. Even a little expertise goes a long way.
+
+**Partner with others.** Share infrastructure and knowledge with similar organizations. You don't have to do everything alone.
+
+**Make it part of your strategy.** Digital self-determination isn't just an IT decision—it's about organizational resilience and values alignment.
+
+### For communities
+
+**Start a conversation.** Talk with neighbors about what you could build together. The technology is often less important than the relationships.
+
+**Learn from others.** Communities around the world are already doing this. Their stories and lessons are freely shared.
+
+**Begin with something visible.** A community wireless network, a shared file server, a local chat space—something tangible that people can see and use.
+
+**Celebrate small wins.** Every step forward is worth celebrating. Building community technology is as much about the building as the technology.
+
+## The invitation
+
+Digital self-determination isn't about rejecting technology or going back to some imagined simpler time. It's about technology that actually serves us—tools we understand, spaces we own, connections we control.
+
+Communities around the world are already building this. Rural cooperatives in Minnesota are running their own broadband. Neighborhoods in Detroit are building wireless networks that bring neighbors together. Artist cooperatives are creating platforms where creators keep what they earn. Indigenous communities are preserving languages and cultures on their own terms.
+
+The tools exist. The knowledge is shared freely. The communities are welcoming.
+
+The question isn't whether this is possible—it's already happening. The question is what you and your community might build together.
+
+We're here to help. That's what the [Civil Society Technology Foundation](/about/) is for, and it's why we're building [Wild Cloud](/projects/wild-cloud/)—to make community-owned technology accessible to everyone.
+
+Come see what becomes possible when communities own their digital homes.