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How To Be A Digital Revolutionary
This is our world, right Racist bullies binge on power, science fights to stop the slide into another dark age, women are targets, and the past is forgotten. Under a hostile and cavalier government, protests form online while calls to take action are broadcast on social media.
How To Be A Digital Revolutionary illuminates why we're here and what we can do, standing in this moment with devices in hand, as both eyewitnesses and active participants to significant social change. It thoroughly runs down the hazards of taking action to fight injustice and fascism in the digital age, providing readers with a roadmap for effective resistance.
How To Be A Digital Revolutionary is woven from clear explainers about murky topics like surveillance and censorship, hands-on strategies to dial back news overwhelm and rage fatigue, first-person accounts in hacking, practical safety advice for protests, and gritty reporting on rights abuses in the digital realm.
Here, you'll learn to identify and minimize your surveillance footprint, about anonymity and making separate identities, how to buy or make a burner phone, and to hack-proof your life. Make your phone less of a tracking device, and keep your communication both secure and private. Find out which documents to keep with you at marches, and how to stay safe if a protest gets violent. Discover ways to support your cause when you can't be there in person.
Find groups to join and get rid of poison people. Make a digital protest sign that makes emergency calls if it gets confiscated, choose or make a body camera, and learn how to record, photo, and share under stress. Fight filters and blocks, and defy being censored on social media. Find out how to "leak" with tools like SecureDrop, and how to create posts and memes that matter.
In a time of rampant injustices, How To Be A Digital Revolutionary offers a powerful new handbook for the resistance, and a way forward for change no matter your level of technical acumen.
Praise for Violet
"One of the leading figures in tech writing in the world."
—Guardian UK
Praise for The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy by Violet
“An illuminating handbook for women.”
—ELLE Magazine
“The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy is a straight-forward how-to for protecting your privacy and undermining the social media settings that want you to share potentially intimate details with the world.”
—Bitch Magazine
“For girls and women in the technological age, this guide to Internet safety is a must-read. It’s a young woman’s invaluable guide to empowerment, addressing not only the why of keeping strong boundaries but the how.”
—Foreword Reviews
How To Be A Digital Revolutionary illuminates why we're here and what we can do, standing in this moment with devices in hand, as both eyewitnesses and active participants to significant social change. It thoroughly runs down the hazards of taking action to fight injustice and fascism in the digital age, providing readers with a roadmap for effective resistance.
How To Be A Digital Revolutionary is woven from clear explainers about murky topics like surveillance and censorship, hands-on strategies to dial back news overwhelm and rage fatigue, first-person accounts in hacking, practical safety advice for protests, and gritty reporting on rights abuses in the digital realm.
Here, you'll learn to identify and minimize your surveillance footprint, about anonymity and making separate identities, how to buy or make a burner phone, and to hack-proof your life. Make your phone less of a tracking device, and keep your communication both secure and private. Find out which documents to keep with you at marches, and how to stay safe if a protest gets violent. Discover ways to support your cause when you can't be there in person.
Find groups to join and get rid of poison people. Make a digital protest sign that makes emergency calls if it gets confiscated, choose or make a body camera, and learn how to record, photo, and share under stress. Fight filters and blocks, and defy being censored on social media. Find out how to "leak" with tools like SecureDrop, and how to create posts and memes that matter.
In a time of rampant injustices, How To Be A Digital Revolutionary offers a powerful new handbook for the resistance, and a way forward for change no matter your level of technical acumen.
Praise for Violet
"One of the leading figures in tech writing in the world."
—Guardian UK
Praise for The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy by Violet
“An illuminating handbook for women.”
—ELLE Magazine
“The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy is a straight-forward how-to for protecting your privacy and undermining the social media settings that want you to share potentially intimate details with the world.”
—Bitch Magazine
“For girls and women in the technological age, this guide to Internet safety is a must-read. It’s a young woman’s invaluable guide to empowerment, addressing not only the why of keeping strong boundaries but the how.”
—Foreword Reviews
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
209 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2017
20 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Violet Blue
110 books267 followersViolet Blue has authored and edited over 40 books, including five (Bronze, Silver and Gold) IPPY award-winners, some of which are now in eight translations. Violet was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, when Ms. Winfrey featured Violet's book on women and pornography (11/17/09). That book is also excerpted and featured on Oprah Winfrey's website, as well as in O, The Oprah Magazine.
Violet owns and operates Digita Publications (digitapub.com), an indie digital publisher of e-books and audio books. Rather than a royalty system, Digita books share all sales with the authors fairly and transparently, featuring books in both DRM-free versions and for Kindle on Amazon.
Her online sexuality blog, Tiny Nibbles, is one of the Internet's longest-running sex blogs, and has won many accolades and awards. For her day job, Ms. Blue is a journalist on hacking, crime, cybersecurity, privacy, and at-risk populations for outlets ranging from Engadget to CNET, and occasionally outlets like CBS News, CNN and O the Oprah Magazine.
Violet owns and operates Digita Publications (digitapub.com), an indie digital publisher of e-books and audio books. Rather than a royalty system, Digita books share all sales with the authors fairly and transparently, featuring books in both DRM-free versions and for Kindle on Amazon.
Her online sexuality blog, Tiny Nibbles, is one of the Internet's longest-running sex blogs, and has won many accolades and awards. For her day job, Ms. Blue is a journalist on hacking, crime, cybersecurity, privacy, and at-risk populations for outlets ranging from Engadget to CNET, and occasionally outlets like CBS News, CNN and O the Oprah Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 8, 2025
The technical stuff is very dated but the psychological info relating to mental health is useful. I do not like how much 2nd person was employed here.
June 3, 2018
Thank you @violetblue for writing this book!
A collection of good advice and resources for those who care about how to use technology for change.
Written with empathy and care. Accessible, easy to start with.
Very needed in this political moment.
If you liked this book and want a good complementary reading I recommend you to check "Beautiful Trouble".
Cons:
- many of the resources and tips will be outdated in few months or years, read this book now and follow up on the online resources
- part of the advice is US centric
A collection of good advice and resources for those who care about how to use technology for change.
Written with empathy and care. Accessible, easy to start with.
Very needed in this political moment.
If you liked this book and want a good complementary reading I recommend you to check "Beautiful Trouble".
Cons:
- many of the resources and tips will be outdated in few months or years, read this book now and follow up on the online resources
- part of the advice is US centric
November 21, 2019
Resource rich, eye-opening and critically relevant. Real-talk covering a wide range of topics including assessing your online identity and privacy risks, avoiding security "snake oil", planning to safely participate in a march and oodles of related project ideas for tech enthusiasts. Additionally, I found the advice on how to connect with and support organizations or causes I care about and use social media more effectively immediately useful and well worth sharing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews