On November 8, 2024 I published an article on my personal site titled: “The rebellion will be federated”:
Elena Rossini
At the time I was reeling from the results of the U.S. presidential election, pondering the crucial role tech barons played in assisting the campaign of DJT.
I wrote:
Following Wednesday’s US presidential results, one could say that the United States has become a kakistocracy (government run by the worst, less qualified people) AND a kleptocracy (a government by corrupt leaders who use their political power to accumulate wealth – at the detriment of their citizens) at once. This nightmare was facilitated by a class of billionaire tech barons (Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk to name a few) who used their powerful platforms to conceal vital information, to sway emotions of the electorate or to disseminate disinformation.
I pondered:
What do billionaires and kleptocrats want? Uninformed, impulsive citizens driven by emotions (fear, rage, anxiety) instead of critical thinking. This way, they are so much easier to manipulate – for the gains of kleptocrats.
So, then and there I resolved to “become the tech barons’ nightmare” – staying away from their platforms, building communities away from their communication tools, advocating for FOSS and raising awareness about the Fediverse.
November 2025: My Year in Review
Over the span of the past 12 months I have taken crucial steps in freeing myself from Big Tech platforms and advocating for alternatives.
On a personal level, last November I deactivated my (already rarely used) Instagram and Threads accounts, put my LinkedIn account in hibernation and deleted my three Twitter (RIP) accounts, which had been my main platform of communication for 12 years, until Musk’s takeover. I was so fed up with these platforms that I basically pulled an “Irish goodbye” - I left without any announcements.
In December 2024 I purchased a VPS, installed YunoHost and set up my own home on the Fediverse: a GoToSocial account to share my self-hosting adventures. I can’t emphasize enough how empowering this was. Finally, I was in charge of my own Fediverse instance. The “admin” label next to my username always brings a smile to my face.
Then in the span of a few months I set up other self-hosted accounts: Pixelfed for photos, PeerTube for videos and NextCloud (which came to replace Dropbox, Google Drive and WeTransfer for me).
I “DeGoogled” and moved my main email account and calendar to a privacy-focused company based in Europe.
In my before life, I wouldn’t have thought twice about joining a Zoom conference call. Now I have a little shiver that goes down my spine when I get a Zoom invitation, far preferring Jitsi. I install Zoom on my device only if there is no other alternative - and promptly delete it from my device as soon as the scheduled meeting or conference is over.
I'm now a completely different – and I dare say more empowered and privacy-focused – digital citizen.
My Contributions to the Fediverse
A year ago I resolved to “volunteer with FLOSS organizations and Fediverse platforms to spread awareness about their tools”. Looking back, I’d argue that my three biggest contributions to the Fediverse have been:
A stock photo I made about Fediverse apps, which people can download from Unsplash and Wikimedia and reuse however they’d like:
Unsplash
A 4 minute video explainer about the Fediverse that has been translated in over a dozen languages. I narrated the English, French and Italian versions and was thrilled to have volunteers do German, Czech, Finnish (and soon Spanish) narrations:
Elena Rossini
And lastly, in September I wrote a “Fediverse starter guide” to help people better understand the Fediverse:
Elena Rossini
I plan to translate this into other languages.
My plan for 2026: to create presentations about the Fediverse for schools, groups and non-profits… giving away all my materials so that others could reuse them and translate them in their own language.
Another way is possible
In November 2024 I could not have imagined all the horrors that some politicians would enable in the span of just 12 months.
The erosion of critical thinking, digital rights and privacy and the ascendancy of AI slop have also been at the top of my mind. Just this morning I read this chilling article from POLITICO: “Brussels knifes privacy to feed the AI boom”.
Digital sovereignty is more important than ever. Last year I wrote in my post:
It is flagrantly obvious that the Fediverse with its independence and lack of algorithmic feeds is possibly the only safe and ethical online social media space one could be in right now.
I still stand by this 1000% and I would add that the ability to self-host is also more important than ever.
Before the end of the year I will write a step-by-step guide to install YunoHost from the point of view of a newbie.
I never imagined I could do so much in the span of 11 months. But another way is possible and my experience is a testament to that. I could not have done all this without the help and encouragement of people of the Fediverse (too many to mention!) I’m so grateful to be part of this special place and more motivated than ever to help make it thrive.
Onwards and upwards,
Elena
P.S.: I'm thrilled to announce that this blog is now part of the Fediverse thanks to Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki and his fantastic Magic Pages (I will write about this move soon): @ele@blog.elenarossini.com 🥳
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