Today I sent emails off to my privacy agencies around my Province, and my MLA’s (Member of the Legislature Assembly) to get elected officials off of US social networks. Suggesting they move to things like Mastodon and PeerTube.
I should also add that I use ad blocking technology (pihole, for most ads. Unwatched for my phone and eventually some Firefox plugin when I get a Linux setup attached to my TV, for youtube.) the ad blocking via pihole started many years ago, but I was just paying the Google for YouTube premium before the boycott started. I moved my blog from some US Wordpress host to a Canadian host and changed from a .com to a .ca address. I already had great email hygiene so I would get next to no spam, thanks to Apple’s hide my email setup, but that needed to change so I got an unlimitted email package with my blog. Now if I get spam I figure out what address is sending it and close the address easy peasy. I am worthless to the ad market, and it is priceless for my sanity.
As it stands now, one huge part that few people realize is an issue is all networking gear.
Companies like Cisco, Ubiquiti, Extreme, Netgear, Alta Labs, Juniper, and more are all located in the US, they make fantastic products, but with the current unreliable regime in the US, we should look into European brands like Mikrotik, they have an extensive offerring across the network, and have been active in the markets for a long time.
There is also Teltonika, they are more focused on industrial stuff, but damn they make some sweet tech.
Lately I have been tempted to get a few pieces of Mikrotik and Teltonika equipment and experiment with to learn.
I do have an old Mikrotik branch touter somewhere at home, I bought it, tried to set it up and gave up, but these days I feel more ready.
I mentioned how pervasive US is with regards to internet infrastructure way back 80 years ago when the orange menace first threatened Canadian sovereignty, and got downvoted for suggesting people lobby their reps to wean off the US teat.
I see Cloudflare, AmazonWS. Akamai (MS) and/or Google services running 90% of websites. Notably Canadian gov and news sites regardless of ownership.
Treat people who only use WhatsApp/FB/IG as if they were incommunicable, unreachable, and likely not worth trying to contact.
I already do that, I have never had an account on Meta systems.
It’s small, but US snacks and products. Local products are better and cheaper, but since they’re in English and from abroad they are seen as superior. Also investing in open air markets instead of the US company dominated malls.
