this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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Thanks to everyone who participated in the first 5-Week De-Google Challenge on Signal!

I'm about to start another de-Google challenge AND a de-Amazon challenge on Monday.

Here is info on the de-Amazon group. (Signal group and PDF plan)

The de-Google Signal group is here.

And for the de-Google challenge we'll be using this checklist

I hope you'll join (and share) one...or both!.

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[–] Corduroy_Pillows_Making_Headlines@hexbear.net 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It's just about doing what we can. I read an article by a tech journalist who experimented with de-AWS-ing, and it was pretty much impossible to use the internet. If you have any tips on how challenge participants can do that even to a small extent, that would be fabulous! But otherwise we'll be disengaging from Amazon shops, Amazon-owned businesses, etc.

[–] Cat_Daddy@hexbear.net 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's an awesome step; I cut Amazon out of my life several years ago and haven't looked back. And I sincerely applaud you for providing this challenge. As for getting rid of AWS, I haven't found a way. I was actually hoping that's what you were going to include. I found in my own attempts a few years ago that getting rid of AWS pretty much disables the Internet for you. I haven't tried again recently, but I assume that it has only gotten worse. Same with Google and Microsoft clouds.

[–] Corduroy_Pillows_Making_Headlines@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Thank you! I WISH I could help people de-AWS. Do you think it would be worth writing to the biggest companies that use it--or companies that may be more amenable, like Signal--and asking them to use alternatives like X, Y or Z? I could always float that idea in the group after the challenge starts.

[–] Cat_Daddy@hexbear.net 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If enough of us do it, absolutely

[–] Corduroy_Pillows_Making_Headlines@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Maybe I can bring it up in the group during the challenge. Any idea what good hosting alternatives are, especially for huge businesses?

[–] Cat_Daddy@hexbear.net 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In the past I had been partial to Icelandic hosts because they're not in the 14 eyes, but they're still European so there's that to consider. There's also likely good hosts in Russia, China, etc. Other than those two countries, it would probably be a good idea to look for hosts based out of the global south, and they'd probably need servers in several countries to provide the traffic balancing large clouds offer. I haven't looked recently, but I know Panama used to have a lot of hosts. That's probably a good place to start.