Homing pigeons getting ready to launch
A couple of weeks ago, FaceBook shut down the public information channel used by the organizers and subscribers of the “No Kings” rally exactly at the time it was needed most. This happened in the midst of Starlink being throttled back for Ukraine just as they came under attack by Russia.
Now that it has been made clear that Facebook and Starlink are making National and International policy decisions without public input, we need to use them (or not use them) accordingly. People were killed in Ukraine due to the Starlink debacle. Whoever made the decision to limit our allies’ use of this privatized technology should be tried for murder.
We should also consider transferring the management of Starlink technology over to NASA. NASA has been one of the most trusted US agencies ever. Their development of electronics technologies and computers was handed over to the public (because we paid for it), and these technologies became the launching pad for a number entire industries – including semiconductors, information processing, computers, and solar power conversion.
This was the part of America that we were all proud of.
As far as Meta is concerned, it has been clear to me that they have a pretty tight hand in how the public gets, delivers, and engages in public discourse. Discussions that don’t harmonize with the Meta algorhythms languish or get buried; ones that do “go viral.” It is not our choice, it is Meta’s.
OCR ran afoul of this last year. Until August 2025 we had over 900,000 followers on FaceBook. We had more public engagement than Oceana and Ocean Conservancy combined. This allowed us to get our policy messages and scientific discussions out to the world. And due to being an “influencer,” we also picked up anywhere from $250 to $1,000 a month just for views. (I lay this spectacular success at the feet of Daniela, our VP of Communications.)
But then, through a nasty bit of legerdemain, we were attacked, and all our followers were vaporized. We tried many Meta channels to try to get them restored. They definitely have this information because one of their obvious products is “eyes on screens.” But we have gotten nowhere with them after over a year of trying to get our feed restored.
Recently BlueHost (our mail server and website host) started offering assisted and “free run” AI services. We signed up with them ages ago as a reliable website host, and mail relay. Now they have tools to mess with our stuff. I’m not really interested in reading 50 pages of 6pt. type to find out where they are granting themselves use-permission to all our material; and these data contracts are also non-negotiable. You either say “I agree” or you don’t get the service.
Then there are some other very useful fundraising services which would only be available to us if we transfer our email hosting services over to Google. If I had anything to worry about with BlueHost and our information security, swinging over to Google would just blow that worry out of the water.
We have other curious evidence of communication interference – like communications being delayed for days or not getting delivered, and of course most of us know when one of our ‘digital services’ pops out ambiguous warnings from the Dark Web about our “Cloud services being terminated unless we change our password…” The digital age has spawned lots of hazards.
If I wanted to create a useful business in this digital age, I might come up with a very simple, very secure way of signaling other people, like a “digital bell” that I could “ring” for messages like “one if by land, two if by sea,” or any other particular message which we could agree on when in we’re face-to-face.