Cover of the zine called “The Internet is Ours”. The title is in black block letters, placed at the bottom of the zine. The background of the zine is in cyan colour, and the zine is covered partially in hot pink flowers. The names of the zine contributors adorned the right side of the cover. Their names are: Al Ibrahim, Al Siew, Atikah Wahid, Azalia Suhaimi, Cik Mus, Doreen Wang, Enbah Nilah, Erin Malikhain, Lily Jamaludin, Nine, Rupa, Shari & Tragikomedi, Sonaksha, Sylvia Nalubega, Wsnwat, Xeem Noor, and Z PWC.
The Internet has always been a space where people connect, express, communicate, educate, learn from each other, organise, mobilise, and conduct many other activities where people are able to extend their social lives and identities online. However, it now represents these ideas less and less. The Internet and technology have increasingly become grounds dominated by powerful individuals and corporations that do not represent the larger population of Internet users, pushing these populations to the side.
The Internet is Ours is a zine with stories from everyday people where we ponder, interrogate, hope for, speculate, and reimagine the future of the Internet and digital technologies for our multiple truths, by answering this one central question:
“How do you imagine the Internet could work for someone like you?”
The stories you will find in this zine — of friendship, community, belonging, safety and joy, and many others — are of the myriad possibilities the Internet should be for everyone across our multiple truths and knowledge. These possibilities, more than any profitable venture, are still what makes the work of reclaiming the Internet for ALL of us — not just the Elon Musks and the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world — worth it.
Download the zines here:
The Internet is Ours is produced for the project Whose Internet? Reimagining an Internet Where Many Worlds Fit. The project is made possible in collaboration with the Association for Progressive Communication's (APC) Southeast Asia Digital Rights Collaborative 2022-2023 project, supported by the Luminate Foundation, Inc.
Do you have any questions or suggestions, or just to say hi? Email [email protected], or find us on Instagram: @whoseinternet.
"The zine is really excellent and so diverse in style, authorship, and content. What ties them all together is the theme of "The Internet is Ours," but couldn't help noticing that a common thread across almost all of them was power and the power differential that they experienced, whether it related to access to the Internet, being from a marginalised community, or some other forms. What then underlies these stories, sometimes openly and sometimes subtlely, was taking back power."
— Fred, technical & capacity building officer, and peacebuilding activist from the Philippines
"[The zine] is really good, touching, fun in places, addresses serious issues, and is beautifully put together."
— Xun-ling Au, #milkteaalliance