It's been the case for a long time that beings reluctant to risk openly identifying or presenting as queer, whether more socially accepted varieties of queer or the most marginalized, turn to online communities to meet others like them, and who will accept them. While online social spaces are never totally safe, they're often perceived as safer than anything in-person, which is especially the case in areas with a lot of bigotry and hate crime.
But social media comes with a lot of downsides as well. Users of sites like Twitter suffer the well-known social harms of "The Algorithm", being encouraged into conflict (and having others encouraged into conflict with them) to maximize engagement. It's also hard to protect your privacy online, leaving all but the most careful beings vulnerable to dangerous types of harassment like doxxing, which can have severe offline consequences – not to mention how stifling it is to avoid being open about your actual life, if you're specifically looking to feel less alone.
Ultimately, online-only connections do as much to fuel isolation as to alleviate it – if not even more. Someone you only know online can't hug you when you're feeling bad, can't lend a hand if you're injured, can't help you move, and can't provide strength in numbers against demographic-based violence. Also, relationships that stay perpetually long-distance, if anything, can intensify loneliness and dissatisfaction. And in activism terms, things like protests and rallies only really exist offline, with the rise of online-first culture coming at a clear cost to effective organization.
And, of course, online platforms are pervasively corporate-controlled. Even relatively free alternatives like the fediverse are still subject to arbitrary suspensions by domain registrars and server hosts, and since internet access in general is heavily surveilled, virtually no one online is as private as they think they are. Meanwhile, big platforms like X, Tumblr, Discord, and Telegram do colossal amounts of data scraping, and considering that the Trump administration and its allies have both stated and demonstrated eagerness to use corporate online data collection to target marginalized groups for offline consequences, this is more than just Big Brother being creepy – it's an extremely serious safety threat to virtually everyone who doesn't fit the fascist definition of a good citizen.
With the advent of age verification laws and the way they threaten to ensure as many users as possible have to concretely identify themselves to the platforms they use, coordinated and massive harassment campaigns being conducted in support of fascist ideology, and more laws being proposed all the time to expand surveillance and censorship – some going as far as literally trying to criminalize transgender gender presentation on the internet – it's clear that the internet is becoming an increasingly hostile and dangerous place, very quickly.
But what can we do? Even the most secure and private platforms on the internet are at risk from invasive and pervasive surveillance powered by rapidly developing new technologies with the specific goal of getting as close as possible to everyone, everywhere, having watchful eyes on them. Privacy and security technology are in an arms race with surveillance technology, and currently, they're fighting heroically, but losing more ground than they gain.
What can we do? The answer is a simple one to state, though still plenty challenging to implement: turn back the clock, and make your offline existence your primary one again. If you're in a safer area, make the most of it, and if you're in a very fascist-dominated area, make getting out of there your absolute top priority – your life might be at stake if you don't. Band together, help each other. In a real community, aid you give today will be there when you need it in the future, and everyone can count on each other – for companionship, for togetherness, for support, and for mutual protection.
We still need the internet to make this happen, because we're not there yet and need to get coordinating. Privacy technology like Signal is still critically useful – we need more and better solutions, and more education to help everyone who needs it use them effectively, to reach out and bring each other together across gaps of physical distance for as long as possible. So don't be expecting an overnight shift – that's not realistic. But physical proximity should be the goal, and one we don't lose sight of.
There's still surveillance offline. There's still censorship offline. But there's less, and it's easier to resist effectively. Ultimately, if achievable, a strong offline community is many times stronger and more rewarding than an online one ever could be… which is exactly what we have a non-negotiable need for in order to get through the times ahead.