Supporter Survey Results

The results are in: What matters most to our movement

Last month we asked you to share your thoughts in our supporter survey. 135 of you took the time to share your thoughts and we want to thank everyone for taking the time to help shape our work.

Your responses are helping us as we plan for the year ahead. In the spirit of openness, we wanted to share with the responses as well as how we are reflecting on them.

Here are some of the top-line results from the survey:

  • The top three issues concerning our community are protecting our right to privacy, stopping surveillance overreach and the power of big tech monopolies.
  • Trust in both government and business is low when it comes to handling personal information and our supporters consider government and corporate surveillance a threat to democracy.
  • Most people reported a connection with other social movements, with 79% identifying with the climate movement.
  • Overall trust in political parties is quite low, but The Greens are seen as more trustworthy on digital rights than the other parties.
  • A lot of people are interested in doing more to defend digital rights but most said that they don’t know how to get more involved.

You can read a breakdown of all the responses here.

A few things stood out to us while we were reading these responses. We want to share how your thoughts have been influencing our planning conversations.

Digital rights do not exist in a vacuum

The vast majority of people who responded to the survey identified with at least one other social movement or cause. We are thrilled that our supporters share our view that digital rights are threaded through every issue in our society. We can’t protect our digital rights without addressing the same power imbalances that are at the heart of these other issues. By the same token, we need to ensure we protect and enhance our digital rights so we can fight to end these other injustices. The work of protecting digital rights is just one front in a broader fight for freedom, justice and equality. We are committed to making sure our plans reflect that understanding.

Opportunities to get involved

We were delighted to see that so many people want to take action in the fight for digital rights. However, it also stood out to us that many don’t  know how to get more involved. This is something we really want to work on and know there is a lot of room for improvement. Creating structures for powerful collective action is never easy work. But these roles are vital to creating a movement that’s capable of creating an internet where we can all thrive.

More timely and accessible digital rights news

We also heard that people want more content explaining the latest developments in tech policy and digital rights issues. Digital rights and tech policy news moves quickly and it’s hard to know what to believe or who to trust. We are committed to being a trusted news source on digital rights and tech policy. And this is an area we are particularly keen to increase our capacity in.

Our work is only possible with your support

The fight for an internet that works for all of us couldn’t be more urgent. Powerful private platforms and their extractive business models, government surveillance and poor policy are combining to create a hostile online environment. Staying on top of the latest developments, organising strategic interventions and delivering trustworthy news is already a lot of work for our small team to carry. And we have ambitious plans for the coming year.

Can you sign up to a monthly donation that will help sustain and grow Digital Rights Watch in 2022? With your support we can deliver more timely news, grow the digital rights movement and win public and political support for policies that will create an internet that works for all of us.