FAQs

DID is “relaxed rebellion”: Every first Sunday of the month a broad coalition of organisations calls for #DigitalIndependenceDay (DID). We're switching to democracy-friendly digital alternatives, reclaiming our freedom in the digital world, and stopping the destruction of democracy. And, step by step, we’re safeguarding our digital independence.

Our digital lives are in the hands of a few ultra-rich individuals. With their (de facto) monopoly, companies like X, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Spotify, ByteDance (TikTok) and individuals like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerberg dictate worldwide how we get our information online, how we discuss issues and communicate, and do business. No individual or business should have such unchecked influence. The good news is: We are currently giving Big Tech this power, and we can take it back from Big Tech.

Digital independence is important because our daily lives are increasingly taking place online: from booking tickets for our next vacation to reading the news and sending birthday wishes. When we rely on a few large platforms, we are giving up control without realising it – control over our data, our communication, and what we can see, say, or share.

That comes with risks, even for each of us individually: Accounts get blocked, content disappears, and reach drops – sometimes without explanation. The big tech monopolies collect our personal data, analyse it, and turn us into commodities to maximise their profits. We adapt our lives to algorithms designed only to maximize profits or spread ideologies rather than acting freely. This creates stress and limits creativity and freedom of choice.

This dependency is also problematic for society. When a handful of organisations control what information is visible, they can influence opinions, debates, and even democratic processes. Diversity is lost. Dependency makes us vulnerable: Technical outages, political decisions, or economic interests can paralyse entire sectors.

Digital independence therefor means more self-determination, more transparency, more resilience and more responsibility. It empowers individuals, protects the diversity of our society, and ensures that technology serves us – not the other way round.

No, DID is all about “relaxed rebellion”. The churches had a good sense of when people might have some free time – Sunday mornings? That is why we suggest that you take some time for a digital switch once a month, on the first Sunday. One switch at a time is enough! Maybe start with a small switch – switching to an alternative browser or to a European search engine. Then you can pat yourself on the back for a month and slowly look forward to the next DID. And if it doesn‘t work out this time because grandma is celebrating her 80th birthday or there is a confirmation coming up – no problem: DID is not a duty. It’s joy! And there will definitely be another DID.

We are not the Stiftung Warentest (an independent consumer organisation): We simply don’t have the resources for that (unfortunately!). In our digital switch recipes we show you a simple way to say goodbye to Big Tech – a way we researched carefully, but there are other approaches that aren’t necessarily any worse. The criteria for “good,” “less good,” and “bad” are certainly open to debate: At DI.DAY we’re focused on quick and easy ways to move away from Big Tech (without being purist or dogmatic). A great overview of other alternatives to Big Tech is available here.

Our goal is to ensure that alternatives offer greater data protection, more control over one’s own data, less dependence on a single provider (lock-in), and more freedom of choice. There are many other criteria that could influence an individual's choice: For example, we think that open-source projects are great – but not all of our recommendations are based on this because we believe that there are other projects that can also offer alternatives to Big Tech. And that's what DID is all about.

We asked four experts in various fields to advise us on selecting and compiling the recipes. The members of this advisory board are:

• Jutta Horstmann, Co-CEO of Horstmann Group and former managing director of ZenDiS
• Prof. Dr. Harald Wehnes, spokesperson for the Executive Committee’s Working Group on Digital Sovereignty at the German Informatics Society
• Sascha Foerster, Managing Director at bonn.digital
• Svea Eckert, tech journalist and Mercator Fellow for “Journalismus und KI” (Journalism and AI) at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research (HBI)

We make all decisions by consensus and try to make the recipes as clear and practical as possible.

Purism and dogmatism are not our mantra: We just want to highlight alternatives to a handful of, almost monopolistic, corporations. These alternatives come in all sizes, each with their own pros and cons. In the end, everyone has to decide for themselves what suits them best. From our perspective, anything that reduces our society’s dependence on a few big tech corporations – whether large or small – makes us all stronger.

Please send us an email at hallo@di.day – the more people who contribute their ideas and help our project grow, the better we’ll become.

Digitale Unabhängigkeitstag (DUT) is simply the German name for DID. On the one hand, we think the German language has everything we need for our relaxed rebellion. On the other hand, we would love DID to also become the norm in other countries. That’s why, from the very beginning, we’ve leaned toward the English “Digital Independence Day.” (And Roland Emmerich's movie wasn't called “Unabhängigkeitstag” in Germany, either.) You can use whichever you like: I #DIDit and #DUTgemacht are both great.

DI.DAY is not the work of a single organisation: From Wikimedia to Mastodon or the Mastodon server freiburg.social to Robin Wood. You can find a list here.

Sure, we’re all on the good side, and so are you! We all have the same goal: digital independence. So all the organisations mentioned above support DID and advocate for its goals. But let’s be honest: None of them has made the full switch yet (or have they?). Many of us are setting out on our own to gradually adopt alternatives – some are moving faster, others slower. And that’s okay, as we said: It’s not about purism, but about having a common goal.

We are building the broadest possible alliance of democratic organisations, businesses, and civil society actors who are all contributing to DI.DAY in their own way: Either by making the switch themselves and talking about it on their own channels, and/or by encouraging their communities to make the switch and offering support. The group of initiators is now complete, but please email us if you have further questions at hallo@di.day.