Are Young Lives Worth Big Tech’s Profits?
Join us in reclaiming our digital world.
Where the users come first, not multimillionaires’ profits.
Our Movement
Europe’s First Youth-Led Tech Justice and Digital Rights Movement
ctrl+alt+reclaim is Europe’s first youth-led tech justice and digital rights movement, currently being incubated by People vs Big Tech. Formed in September 2024, the movement is made up of twenty-two 17-26 year-olds in and from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Moldova, Romania, Spain, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom and will be swiftly expanding. ctrl+alt+reclaim aims to ensure young people’s voices and participation are prioritised within EU tech regulation policies and dialogues and seeks to build a new culture that defines how desirable tech and healthy online spaces look like.
Young People First
ctrl+alt+reclaim launched its manifesto in November 2024 and has been growing ever since, with plans for a world where young people come first, not Big Tech's profits.
- Where social media is safe, inclusive and easy to step away from
- Where community and connection are promoted above outrage and division
- Where the details of our lives belong to us and us only
The Manifesto
A Youth Manifesto for our Digital World. As the first generation to grow up online, we understand all that the internet can bring:
Community and connection across continents and cultures, participation in movements that can change the world, instant access to information and services on a scale never dreamed of in history. But a tiny group of CEOs have taken this gift, this product of collective creativity and claimed it for themselves. They’ve commandeered its networks; walled in its profits; built vast, opaque monopolies that answer to no one.
They’ve put our lives at risk. Here is how:
Addictive Algorithm
Their algorithms are addictive by design, purposefully crafted to suck us in and keep us there; conditioning our minds so we open their apps without fully wanting to; trapping our attention with tightly tailored, toxic feeds that sap our self-esteem along with our time and energy.
Harmful Platforms
Their platforms are harmful, subjecting us to hour after hour, day after day of hate, disinformation, rage, violence and spam, overwhelming our abilities to process our emotions and maintain our wellbeing.
Intrusive Business Model
Their business model is intrusive, invading our lives with the biggest surveillance operation in history – finding our deepest secrets, sitting in on our private moments, plundering our hopes, our neuroses, our darkest fears and turning our lives into data to be profited from.
We are ready to reclaim our digital world.
We may be the first generation to live our whole lives as ‘profiles’ to extract data from, but we’re here to say we will be the last. We’ve got plans for a world where we the users come first, and not multimillionaires profit. Where social media is safe, inclusive and easy to step away from. Where community and connection are promoted above outrage and division. Where the details of our lives belong to only us. This is the world we all want. This is how we make it real.
From Today on and Every Day, We Are Fighting For
Let’s force Big Tech to disclose how they design their algorithms and use our data, so we can swap addiction for enrichment.
Let’s take action to break open the Big Tech monopolies so we can build the respectful, safe and empowering social media we really want.
Let’s win strong laws to safeguard our personal data and restore our boundaries so when we go online it’s for us and us alone.
Join the Movement
Be Part of the Change!
If you share our vision and want to help shape the digital future through campaigns, advocacy or creative collaboration, we would love to hear from you. Reach out to us through the contact form and tell us a bit about yourself.
