ctrl+alt+reclaim is the first European movement fighting for digital rights, created by and for young people. Launched in September 2024, the movement is made up of young people aged 17 to 26 from various European countries. It “aims to ensure that young people’s voice and participation are prioritised in the European Union’s digital regulation dialogues and policies, and seeks to build a new culture defining what healthy technologies and online spaces should look like”, according to their website ctrl-alt-reclaim.org.
The movement created its manifesto with the ambitious but vital aim of redefining a world where young people come before the profits of the tech giants.
This manifesto invites young people to reclaim the digital world, following these three main guidelines:
- Redefine a world where “social media is safe, inclusive and non-addictive”;
- Be able to navigate in a “space where solidarity and the collective prevail over division and hatred”;
- And where personal data belongs only to users.
Young people denounce addictive algorithms, harmful platforms and an intrusive business model. They announce that they are determined to fight every day to “make real” the virtual world they envisage, with more transparency, clarity, respect, choice, diversity and trust.
We can only welcome these founding principles and such a promising momentum. It is now up to other generations to support and encourage their ambitions, and then other forms of unifying movements advocating free will and digital resistance.
S.W. and S.B.
