Mozilla campaign to “Unfck the Internet” shares tips for reclaiming control of our online lives

The non-profit-backed organisation behind the Firefox browser takes aim at big tech, stating the web has become filled with misinformation, corruption and greed, but users can help fix it.

Date
5 October 2020

Mozilla is a non-profit-backed tech company whose tagline since its founding in 2002 has been “internet for people, not profit,” its free and open-source web browser, Firefox, being its best known product. Now, at the zenith of public distrust of tech corporations, the company has launched a no-holds-barred campaign that takes aim at its competitors and enlists internet users in a mission to fix a “fcked up” web. Unfck the Internet is therefore an evolving list of advice to users on how to take back control of their online lives.

Aside from choosing to use Firefox (of course) and other independent tech products, the campaign covers advice for calling out political advertising, stopping Facebook from “following you around the rest of the web” and reporting bad YouTube recommendations, via a list of suggestions for extensions to the browser such as Facebook Container, Ad Observer and Regrets Reporter. It also highlights Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma as one of many resources for learning more about the subject.

“We are inundated with sensational headlines every minute of every day,” writes Mozilla CMO Lindsey Shepard in a blog post about the campaign. “It’s hard to know what to pay attention to, and where to put your energy. With so much noise, chaos and division, it seems that one of the only things we all have in common is relying on the internet to help us navigate everything that’s happening in the world, and in our lives. But the internet isn’t working.”

Instead, the internet has become “a place filled with misinformation, corruption and greed,” she says. “And in recent years we’ve seen those with power — Big Tech, governments, and bad actors — become more dominant, more brazen, and more dangerous.”

The campaign invites internet users to “take back control from those who violate our privacy just to sell us stuff we don’t need. Let’s work to stop companies like Facebook and YouTube from contributing to the disastrous spread of misinformation and political manipulation. It’s time to take control over what we do and see online, and not let the algorithms feed us whatever they want.”

See the full campaign and list of advice here. Johnson Banks was behind the rebrand of Firefox last year, a design process which was – in the company's spirit – open to the public.

GalleryUnfck the Internet (Copyright Mozilla, 2020)

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Unfck the Internet (Copyright Mozilla, 2020)

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Jenny Brewer

Jenny oversees our editorial output across work, news and features. She was previously It’s Nice That's news editor. Get in touch with any big creative stories, tips, pitches, news and opinions, or questions about all things editorial.

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