The sentiment around buying European/Canadian alternatives to American products and services is a great one, and I can get behind the movement, but there is more to it.
Not all products and services have alternatives that are viable. You can’t get your workplaces to move to libreoffice or get your mom to start using signal messege. Moreover, even when using Europa products and services you still perpetuate the culture of uncontrolled capitalism and enriching tech billionaires. Open Source Alternatives, Piracy, and Ad Blocking are all equally viable.
Keeping this in mind, remember that piracy and ad blocking are great ways to keep using American services without contributing to their bottom line.
There are ad free versions of YouTube, reddit, Instagram and Facebook apps. They’re all patched with revanced and are available on github.
Additionally, pirate media as much as you can and be unapologetic about it. Facebook is doing it, so can you. Pirate music, movies, books they’re all available. Torrents community has never been safer and better organised.
Consume without paying and that does more damage to their bottomlines.
IMO it’s justifiable when there are no solid European alternatives, but I don’t really agree with an all-encompassing “pirate as much as you can” mentality. There are European authors, indie game developers etc who need to make a living and are very much worthy of support. The Buy European movement is also supposed to be about promoting our local economy, instead of just shunning American products. So I’d say think about what to pirate and what not to.
Absolutely. Support small game devs, musicians and film makers. Go to the cinema & concerts more often, buy or donate to artists whenever you can.
But there is little reason to keep your Netflix, Disney and Spotify subscription. Pirate things and pay your favourite artists directly. Tech companies are rent seekers who add no value and give very little back to the creators.