It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots between Big Tech, digital colonialism, Western imperialism and Israel’s Occupation of Palestine. Michael Kwet writes:
“For decades, Silicon Valley has been supporting the Israeli apartheid regime, supplying the advanced technology and investment needed to power its economy and occupy Palestine. Today’s largest US-based technology corporations see an opportunity to profit from Israeli apartheid – a by-product of US-driven digital colonialism.”
Money is the lifeblood of Capitalism. Genocide and war crimes are methods of Colonialism. The only way to stop the war machine is to make it unprofitable to run. Without money, they have no power. The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement embodies this by encouraging individuals and organisations to boycott and divest from businesses and institutions that prop up the Israeli apartheid regime. We have no control over where our government spends our taxes but we, as individuals, can choose what we consume, which companies we support, and what causes we fund.
Back in March, we looked at Wolfbound Books’ brand values and our vision to establish what our ethical standards were. Drawing on guides from ethical.net, Ethical Consumer and boycott-israel.org, we reviewed our ways of working and digital systems to ensure that we’re investing in companies that valued human rights as we all should. We learned that PayPal, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Google and other top tech companies were leaning towards right-wing politics, removing Diversity, Equality & Inclusion policies, and investing billions in Israeli operations which ultimately funds the genocide in Palestine. We could not in good conscience continue to use them. Once we had made our plan, we communicated our Big Tech Exit Strategy to all members of our community who will be affected by our transition — stockists, consignors, partners, collaborators, friends, followers, and subscribers.
We began deleting our accounts from platforms named in the BDS tech list: Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Google, Microsoft, Amazon, among others. We replaced Google Suite, which we previously used for emails, document editing and file management, with Protonmail — a free and secure email service powered by community, not surveillance capitalism. We downloaded all our content, inventory, data, and sales reports from Google’s servers before deleting them. We migrated our website content from our previous Squarespace sites and redirected their URLs into one simplified website on Cargo. In the current media and political climate, we’ve concluded that we have more to gain by deleting our social media accounts— Instagram and YouTube—and focusing on our in-person experiences.
Big Tech will make it difficult for you to leave because you’re no use to them if you’re not on their platform consuming their propaganda, buying their ads, playing their games, taking selfies and feeding your facial and personal data to their AI. They’ll make you go through a maze to find the delete button. They’ll even hold your account for 30 days in case you change your mind. Hold your ground. Breaking up with Big Tech is hard but only in the beginning. Once you quit, you’ll realise that you didn’t really need them at all. You’ll start to assess your own consumer behaviour and choices. Why do I need to sign up? What am I really signing up for? Where does my money go? Is there a more ethical alternative?
We have yet to find an ethical e-commerce alternative that doesn’t use Pro-Israel payment gateways such as PayPal or Stripe, so we decided to pivot and trade 100% offline in person with cash, PayID and EFTPOS options. We survived a Zine Fair without a Square reader (or as most call it, ‘tappy thing’). Some people walked away because it was too inconvenient but those who get it happily did the extra work to pay the ethical way. Those are our people. These days, people just tap and go, turning the art of bookselling and the zine fair experience into a business transaction rather than a meaningful exchange. Boycotting Big Tech and letting go of some modern conveniences may have slowed us down but it has given us a fresh perspective on life, and even made bookselling more fulfilling!
Buying a book at Wolfbound Books is no longer an instant transaction. People linger long enough for us to introduce ourselves and shake hands. By the time someone finds loose change in their bag to pay cash or sort out PayID, we’ve chatted so much that they no longer feel like a customer but an old friend. As it turns out, boycotting Big Tech makes for a great ice breaker. People ask questions—Why are you boycotting? Should I boycott too? How?—and we jump at the opportunity to educate them and challenge our own beliefs as well. Some engage us in a debate to test our knowledge and conviction, so we exercise our freedom of speech, we listen and learn. We don’t know all the answers but we’re all for starting a conversation. Even if we don’t change anyone’s minds, the fact that we make them re-think their relationship with Big Tech and social media is a win. On a good day, a few people would leave us with an encouraging smile, an affirming nod and a heartfelt: “Good on you!” Those acts of kindness and genuine human connection is priceless, and it’s what keeps Wolfbound Books going.
