Most actions are well within the realm of being ‘legal’ and such, but participants/planners should be aware that law enforcement keeps an eye on groups that they believe ‘might’ be some threat to the status quo. They toss around the term ‘terrorist’ far too easily these days, and they need to justify the laws and their inflated budgets for the ‘enemy’ that they envision and need.
Many groups use communication tools to make their planning and communications more secure.
Platforms like Facebook Messenger, email (Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.), Slack, Telegram, etc. are not secure.
Many groups use Proton, Signal (here are some good resources for Signal and Signal), WhatsApp (owned by Meta/Facebook/Instagram and therefore, how secure?), and Mattermost as their preferred platforms.
These work well for most purposes. Proton has a calendar that you can share with your team, and at the time of this writing, it is secure.
It is a pain to have to use yet another platform or two but it is for everyone’s benefit in our respective groups.
There are starting to be several options out there as secure/securer alternatives for Word, Excel, Google Sheets, etc., like Proton Docs, CryptPad, and Etherpad, With the move away from large tech giants, it has made it a very attractive environment for those alternatives to get a leg up.
Zoom has really taken over the market for video conferencing, especially during COVID. Extremely handy. Take a short course on using this platform so it runs smoothly. When there are a lot of people in the group, it is best to have someone be a dedicated tech person (making the breakout rooms, limiting speakers, timing, sharing materials, answering the chat channel, etc.)
Of course, there are other platforms like Discord, Twitch, Skype, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc., but the downside is that people are familiar with Zoom and comfortable with it.
You can get a free account for up to 100 participants/attendees, but it is limited to 40 minutes. If you find that you are going to run over your 40 minutes, you can restart the same meeting after you are kicked off using the same link that the attendees already have.
Social Media Platforms
If you view social media platforms as tools for pumping out your message and sharing relevant information, then you tend not to get sucked into scrolling through distracting videos and misinformation.
Don’t overshare your personal information online.
Twitter: This was the granddaddy of how many people had a window on the news of the world. Since Elon Musk took it over and there was a fundamental shift to the political right and censorship many people have left the platform.
Bluesky: this was seen as a Twitter alternative and feels very much like how Twitter worked.
TikTok: Most of the content that is streamed to me on TikTok is excellent. There is some concern by people because of the ownership – Chinese and Larry Ellison.
Instagram: Popular and somewhat entertaining. Good platform for reaching out to our demographic – young and concerned people.
Facebook: a lot of older people tend to be on Facebook because it was the first big social media platform that became huge, and we older folks were younger then. Facebook has an event component. It is a good tool to use to promote your event to this demographic and it to be a landing page for people seeking more information. I will quite often promote an event on Facebook and double down by using Eventbrite to reach a wider audience.
Reddit: people use Reddit kind of like a social media platform. A good platform for discussion.
Many of the platforms allow you to schedule posts. There are some multi-platform programs which allow you to cross-post and schedule when you want to have them released to the public.
You decide what information is released and when.
There are several Chinese platforms, but I have not used them. I did open a Red Note account but did not go beyond that.
When you put out information or opinions that are challening to the hard right/Conservatives portion in our society, you need to expect to get trolls and bots showing up. Try not to have them waste your time and energy. Just carry on.
