Today is “The Day We Fight Back” in which many NGOs and companies unite “against mass surveillance”. It’s basically ye olde petition spiel because what does “taking action” mean on this most auspicious day?

If you expected some actual political program, some nuanced and well laid-out plan to change the political landscape and/or debate, or some other non-trivial action you might be somewhat disappointed. Because “action” means this:

Action is a click appending your name and email to some list. And after having collected thousands if not millions of signatures by “PrivacyWarrior1990” and his or her friends we do what exactly?

There can be power in organizing masses, in giving people a date, a url and a hashtag to rally around: It can spark an actual goal-oriented movement bringing a new position into the media and the public perception. But maybe not so much here.

Even if we assume that the organizers do actually have a plan they are doing a great job hiding it on their campaign page. Check it out. What happens with the names on the list? What’s the ultimate goal?

The page lists some quotes from articles from the New York Times and the Washington Post rehashing some of the “Snowden leaks”. Which is all fine and dandy as an introduction or illustration of a perceived problem. But what’s the goal? And if there is one, is in in any way S.M.A.R.T.?

While that page and its corresponding hashtags (#stopspying or #TheDayWeFightBack) will get many clicks and likes and shares I do not see it doing anything apart from keeping people busy for a day. Feeling good about taking action without actually having to take any action.

This form of protest is toothless and hollow. It’s going through the motions of protesting without actually doing any of the work. In fact: Not even the problem is properly analyzed or described. It’s just this wibbly-wobbly bowl of problemy stuff that many people do somehow emotionally relate to instead of a precise description of what the actual problem is.

One could argue that it’s at least something and it’s not hurting anyone but I have to disagree. If you want to activate the public or at least a significant part of it you can only use a certain angle a limited amount of times. We just spend one of these instances for what? For a website giving people a feeling of having done something. So now that they have fought and done their part they can go back to diddling around on reddit or playing video games.

There is only limited energy and attention for these discussions. Wasting them on pointless clickbait might not be the best strategy. But what do I know?

Click here to save the world.

Liked it? Take a second to support tante on Patreon!