While politicians and ruling powers continue their efforts to restrict social networks and control the free flow of information, it is our responsibility to speak out, share the truth, and defend our right to freedom of speech and expression.

There are people, such as myself, who find social networks mentally overwhelming and choose to avoid them. They are not designed and built for everyone. Still, it doesn’t mean that social networks are inherently bad. Today, social networks are one of the most important platforms for free speech. People expressing their opinion, uncensored, is what makes democracy great.

As governments around the world tighten their grip on the cyberspace, it becomes harder to preserve our anonymity. We must fight to protect our rights. Absolute power always lead us to dictatorship. To safeguard our freedom, resistance is essential.

Using social networks is part of this resistance. The more people speak up, sharing stories of injustice and unfairness, and voicing their opinions without fear, the harder it becomes for any system to silence them.

Organizing rallies and protests isn’t simple. You have to bring together people who care about the same issue, keep things peaceful, respect the rights of others, set the right time and place, and make it big enough that the message actually gets heard. And even with guides on how to attend safely, many people worry about being recognized, which is often reason enough for them to stay away.

Social networks have made things easier. People everywhere can share their opinions and be heard without having to show up at a protest in person. But it’s still not completely safe. Many have faced punishment for what they’ve said online. House raids, lawsuits, and threats simply for speaking out against those in power. And while some believe using a fake name makes them anonymous, the reality is that there are plenty of ways to uncover someone’s true identity.

It’s worth reminding people that while protesting on social networks has value, it doesn’t replace showing up in person. Online speech is still speech, but politicians aren’t nearly as intimidated by posts as they are by physical marches and protests.

We should not take online protest for granted. If it were useless, those in power wouldn’t try so hard to censor it. It remains one of the strongest tools we have today. It spreads free information, gives people access to new knowledge, and helps communities stay informed about the issues that matter to them.

Even though I do not use social networks myself, I encourage others to take part in them. If it ever becomes necessary, I will use them too despite the problems I might face. Nothing is more important than our freedom, and if speaking out on these platforms helps protect it, then being active is not a choice but a duty.

This is especially clear in many Middle Eastern countries where less democratic regimes hold power. Authoritarian governments depend on keeping people uninformed, which makes social networks a direct threat to their survival. That is why they impose heavy censorship and work relentlessly to block the free flow of information in any way they can.

It hardly needs repeating that Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, was assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. In the MENA region, journalism that serves the people is often treated as a dangerous profession. Dictators understand the power of information, which is why they work so aggressively to control it.

That is why it is important to take back control of your online and digital life. Your presence in cyberspace matters, because every time you show up, you make it harder for those who want to silence you.

Using social networks is important, but what matters even more is staying in control of your data. Dictators are never afraid to use force, silence voices, or treat people unjustly, which is why owning your data is essential. Silo platforms such as Twitter (now X), and Meta (including Facebook, Instagram, etc.) harvest personal information and hand it over to third parties, including governments. That makes protecting your digital life just as critical as speaking out.

Safer social networks such as Mastodon (or more broadly the Fediverse) are better options. But it is still very important to choose your instance carefully, since the server you join shapes your experience and determines how your data is handled. They give you a voice, are designed to respect users freedom and privacy, and they’re free (as in freedom) software.

Freedom was never achieved easily, and the digital age is no exception. Whether through marches through the streets or voices raised online, every single act of resistance matters. Social networks can be powerful tools, but only if we use them wisely and remain in control of our data. The fight for freedom is the fight for our future, and it begins with each of us showing up, speaking out, and refusing to be silenced.

As technology is advancing every day, specially today, in the age of so-called artificial intelligence, privacy becomes more and more important. Today, everything we do and everywhere we go is recorded somewhere. There’s a track of our daily life somewhere in the hands of someone who is not supposed to know about it.

Sadly, technology is aiding this more and more and governments and powerful organizations depend on it to put control on our actions. Whatever we do, whatever we say, whatever opinion we have, every single detail of our lives are recorded. But happily, we’re not totally powerless.

Our freedom depends on our privacy. Privacy safeguards our fundamental rights. The ability to express our thoughts and feeling is crucial for our freedom. As a Middle Easterner, I get to gain a deeper understanding of this. Middle East is a special place. It’s where tyrannical governments do whatever they can to take away people’s freedoms and the way they do it is by taking away people’s privacy. More and more surveillance everyday and putting every single person under constant watch makes governments powerful enough to take control of what people can and can’t do.

Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered in Saudi embassy in Turkey in 2018, simply because his journalism and activism wasn’t in favor of the Saudi government. Saudi isn’t losing anything over this. Nobody actually cares about this anymore. They actually got to host the World Cup in 2034. What it left as a precedent is that now more activist fear for their lives. If the government can assassinate a well-know journalist in its embassy in a foreign country, then they can make you disappear in a blink of an eye.

Privacy makes us bulletproof against these threats. I know it’s hard to disappear from the radar completely but there are steps to make it harder for the Big Brother. By using tools that enhance our privacy rights, we can effectively mitigate their attempts to impose surveillance on us.

I understand that it may be hard at our first steps but it worths the effort. We may not be able to pay cash for everything, or never carry our phones, or never give away any piece of personal information to someone, even if we try, mistakes will happen, but least is we gave it a try.

Ditching Gmail for a more privacy-focused alternatives, using web browsers and browser plugins that are designed to limit the data we share, using privacy-enhanced messengers and more importantly, encrypting whatever data we have is a start.

Doing so is not so hard. There are multiple good sources on the internet, and there are services and sites that guide people to start with taking their privacy more seriously. PrivacyGuides is one source I like.

We’re advancing. Every piece of technology we use today is somehow taking away our privacy and mining our personal information for the benefit of massive corporations and tyrannical spying governments. It’s so easy for them. Every piece of data we give these AI bots today are going to feed this surveillance machine, designed and launched to take away our freedom. There will be a day that none of us can speak freely because none of us will have enough privacy against regimes that rule us. This is of course preventable if we take serious steps towards more privacy.

We all have data we need to protect. It’s not about what kind of watch you wear, or what dog breed you think is the cutest, it’s about building a complete profile of you that will determine if you’re a threat to the ruling power. It’s not about what you post on Twitter today, it’s about what you’re going to shout in a protest against people who oppress you.

Let’s take a step forward and guarantee our freedom, and a safer place for our children.