Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
Revelation 13:16-18
It is obvious that Silicon Valley exercise tremendous power and control over our lives. A lot of the technology and tech services we use everyday (e.g. Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, etc) are from concentrated monopolies with tremendous corporate market power. ‘Everyone’ uses them and there are no easy and viable alternatives.
And also note this: a lot of these powerful tech companies are hostile to conservative ideas and the Christian faith. They are deeply biased against Christians in particular. Anecdotally, there are reports of them turning a blind eye towards those of other religious faith for the same ‘infractions’ that the Christians ‘committed’.
So, what happens when massive corporate market power is combined with hostility against conservative ideas and Christians? The result is persecution of conservatives and Christians. Indeed, it is already happening.
Therefore, it is very important that each of us have a plan to wean ourselves away from these giant tech companies who abuse their power to persecute our Christian brothers and sisters. We need to do that for these reasons:
- To reduce their market power. Corporations abuse their market power because they can. But if we collectively boycott them, we will be able to hit them where they hurt most.
- To protect our privacy. Tech companies like Google and Facebook collect vast reams of data about their users. They do not respect our privacy. Through the data they have collected about us, they can, if they want to, identify who are the Christians and hurt them very badly. You absolutely need privacy even if you are absolutely clean and have nothing to hide.
- To protect ourselves from indoctrination and manipulation. If we get our source of news and information from giant tech companies like Facebook and Google, and see the world through the biased lens that they provide, then we are opening up ourselves to their manipulation and indoctrination. There are evidence that they are already abusing their market power to do just that. So, if you let them filter your information source day after day for an extended period of time, your thinking, feeling, values and opinions will shift. Remember, your kids are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and indoctrination. Therefore, if you let them see the world through a biased Christophobic information filter, then there will be no guarantee that they will inherit your values and religious faith when they grow up.
- To improve the quality of your life. Studies have shown that use of social media contribute to depression in teenagers. Addiction to technology is increasingly becoming a problem. Overuse of technology is degrading the quality of our lives and undermining our mental well-being. So, by boycotting some of these giant tech companies, we can kill two birds with one stone.
So, here are the list of tech companies that we need to boycott. There will also be information on the alternatives. This list will be updated and grow over time as new information and developments come up.
GoFundMe
Looking at their Twitter feed, it is clear that they are steep in leftist ideology. For example, look at this tweet. They are soliciting for funds to turn the tide towards abortion.
In 24 June 2019, they deleted Israel Folau’s campaign to fund his upcoming court case, AFTER more than 10,000 donors chipped in more than $750,000. Not only that, they refused to pass that donated money to Israel Folau. Israel Folau’s upcoming court case rallied Christians all over Australia because it is a test case that has implications on the issue of religious freedom, religious discrimination and free speech.
By terminating Israel Folau’s campaign, GoFundMe has shown that they are on the side of those who have contempt for religious freedom and free speech.
Reportedly, GoFundMe exercise the same bias against campaigns by Christians in the United States.
How to boycott GoFundMe:
- Never ever donate via GoFundMe. They charge donors 5-10% on top of their donation amount, which goes to their corporate revenue, which in turn will be used to undermine conservatives and Christians.
- If you really need to help sick kids or save human lives/limbs, offer to donate by transferring funds directly to their bank accounts.
- For causes that do not endanger human limbs and lives, insist that you will NOT donate unless the campaigner stop using GoFundMe.
Change.org
I thought Change.org was a force for good.
Until I saw Sally Rugg, Executive Director of Change.org Australia, spoke in this Q&A program. She spoke about Israel Folau making “disgusting comments about transgender children” in a church sermon.
The problem is, either she did not listen to Israel Folau for herself or she has serious English comprehension difficulty. In Israel Folau’s sermon, the “they” that he referred to, were the government. He believes that “their” (the government, NOT transgender children) policies will harm children. But the media reported falsely that Israel Folau were referring to transgender children. And Sally Rugg reiterated that false claim.
Also look at her Twitter profile and Wikipedia page carefully. It is very clear where her political affiliation lies. I have strong doubts about her objectivity when it comes to freedom of religion, conscience and speech.
So, this tells me one thing very clearly. One day, Change.org will treat Christians and conservatives the same way GoFundMe treats Israel Folau.
Boycott them first. Never ever take part in any of their petitions.
Alternative to Change.org:
If you need to start a petition, try iPetitions instead. Here is how they describe themselves,
Unlike others, we are non-partisan, non-ideological. Just the best tools for your campaign
Netflix
Netflix threatened to boycott the state of Georgia for their pro-life laws. What if we boycott them instead? We need to free ourselves from the bondage of having to be entertained by film and television series that will be filled with leftist propaganda anyway.
We need to delete our Netflix accounts. We will be financially better off and spiritually healthier.
If you really need alternatives, maybe try Hulu instead. So far, I have not heard of them abusing their market power (yet).
Pinterest terminated the account of Live Action, a pro-life group.
To boycott Pinterest is simple: delete your Pinterest account.
Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
In a US Government hearing before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee, Senator Ted Cruz brought out a previously censored tweet with a quote from Mother Teresa and asked Twitter and Facebook executives whether that was considered hate speech.
Both of them were speechless. They could not give a straight answer to this simple question.
You can watch the video of the hearing for yourself. It is clear that Facebook and Twitter are prejudiced against conservatives and Christians.
What are the alternatives?
Gab: a Twitter alternative that respects free speech
Instead of Twitter, sign up for an account at Gab. Gab is owned and run by an evangelical Christian who respects free speech. They will not censor any expressions in that platform unless it is illegal or ordered by a US Court of law.
After you sign up, gradually make a plan to spend more time and engage more often over there.
Check out Inspiriting’s Gab profile here. We do not have a Twitter profile.
What is the alternative to Facebook?
The first question to ask yourself is this: how much has Facebook improve the quality of your life? Studies have shown that prolonged use of social media like Facebook makes you more likely to be depressed. Among all your Facebook ‘friends’, how many are people whom you really care about?
Personally, I deleted my Facebook account more than a year ago. I do not miss it and am glad that it is out of my life. Without Facebook, I can now protect my privacy and I am now out of reach from Facebook’s manipulation (which they have a track record of). I waste far less time, feel less depressed and connect more face-to-face with people whom I care. Now that I no longer get my news from Facebook, I am no longer live in a filter bubble. My quality of life has improved ever since I deleted my Facebook account. I no longer see updates from people that I do not care and I connect more with people that I care.
So, in view of this new freedom, do I need an alternative to Facebook? No! There are Facebook alternatives like Mewe and Minds. But I am not going to sign up to any of them.
So, delete your Facebook account and don’t bother to find an alternative.
What about Instagram?
Since Facebook owns Instagram, they go into my boycott list too.
For the same reason, I have deleted my personal Instagram account. Instagram is a time-wasting service that does not improve the quality of my life. Although Inspiriting has an Instagram profile here, I do not bother to engage there often. I use that account to check out influencers and profiles that are there and occasionally look at what they have posted.
If Instagram disappears tomorrow, I will not care less.
Google (Search, Gmail, YouTube)
For quite a while, conservative influencers had the suspicion that Google heavily biased its search engine results and recommendations against them.
In June 25 2019, Project Veritas released this explosive news:
Project Veritas has released a new report on Google which includes undercover video of a Senior Google Executive, leaked documents, and testimony from a Google insider. The report appears to show Google’s plans to affect the outcome of the 2020 elections and “prevent” the next “Trump situation.”
US Congressman Louie Gohmert issued a statement saying,
This video shows Google’s biases are now a threat to a free and fair election”
In response, Google was grilled by Senator Ted Cruz in a US Government Senate hearing. You can watch the archived webcast of the grilling here.
Unsurprisingly, Google censored that damaging video in YouTube.
In another news report,
Conservatives erupted Tuesday after Project Veritas released an alleged internal Google email in which an employee compared three prominent right-of-center figures to Nazis.
The email, part of an apparent chain to the company’s transparency and ethics group, was sent by Liam Hopkins to 17 other staff using Google email addresses. The other names and date were redacted.
So, we can no longer trust Google to be unbiased, non-partisan and ideologically neutral against Christians.
Gmail
If you have used Gmail for a very long time, it will accumulate a lot of personal information about you. Google can analyse your entire email archive and know you exceedingly well. You have no privacy from Google. If you do not trust Google, you better find alternatives. Here are some of my recommended alternatives:
- Outlook.com: So far, Microsoft has kept clear of politics. If you need to download all your archived emails from your Gmail account into your computer, you can use this free software called Mailstore. If you need to transfer them to your Outlook.com email account instead, there are instructions from Microsoft here.
- ProtonMail: This email service provider is specially designed to protect your privacy and security. All your emails in their servers are so well encrypted that even ProtonMail cannot read them. Also, their servers are located in Switzerland and protected by Swiss privacy laws.
- The Helm: If you do not trust any third-party email service providers, you can be your own email provider and store all your emails, calendars, contacts, photos and files in your own physical server in your home. The Helm provide you with a physical computer server that is encrypted and you need to physically connect it to the Internet. It is more work and more costs involved, but you will have total privacy. Even the company that sells you The Helm cannot access your emails.
Search
As exposed by Project Veritas, Google is no longer non-partisan and ideologically neutral. We cannot trust that their search results will be objective and free from left-wing political bias. So, I recommend using DuckDuckGo as your search engine instead. It is a search engine powered by Microsoft’s Bing and unlike a Google, they do not collect data about you. It is a pure search engine.