Mozilla — for trying to unfck the internet

Like much in 2020, the internet did not have a great year.

Our usage may have skyrocketed, but so did our distrust of ‘Big Tech’ – certainly not helped by the flurry of misinformation, privacy infringements, and frequent appearances in congressional hearings.

Which is why Mozilla thinks the internet needs to be Unfcked.

Mozilla, the internet’s good guys, has been a challenger since its founding and the launch of the first Firefox browser in 2002.

Built on the belief that the internet should be for people, not profit, it is when it’s leant into this spirit most explicitly and launched campaigns around this point of view that it’s been most successful. (Of course, having a product that was miles better than the current iteration of Internet Explorer certainly helped).

But over the last decade, Firefox has seen its market share chipped away at by Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari, and it seems like the company has decided to go back to its challenger roots to fight back. Mozilla is once again the People’s Champion of the internet.

The Unfck the Internet campaign is a direct challenge to Big Tech, and the misinformation, political manipulation, and privacy infringements they have let fester.

For Mozilla, the campaign isn’t just a soapbox, but a call to internet lovers everywhere to take action. ‘Unfck the Internet’ is more of a virtual toolbox, with everything from reading lists to Internet of Things privacy reviews (ever wondered what your Wi-Fi enabled air purifier is doing with your data?), to petitions to sign and browser extensions to enable.

One of Mozilla’s most significant hurdles is that even though this is a category rife with mistrust and discontent, activists have often struggled to get people to do anything about it.

But Mozilla’s campaign suggests a ‘Fck it’ to old tactics, and an embrace of new ways of doing things. It’s not a doom and gloom nightmare of a dystopic surveillance state that makes you want to hide under a duvet, or a holier-than-thou campaign telling you to delete every social media app immediately. It’s fun, accessible, and something you can take part in between Zoom calls. And it doesn’t need an advanced computer science degree to understand.

Mozilla has a wave of momentum on its side — but we have been here before, and the lure of convenience and the status quo has always won out. So, as we venture into 2021, and the internet still resembles the Wild West, we’ll be watching Mozilla closely to see if its bold new approach can finally turn discontent into action.