ABOUT

Hey there, my name is YK Hong.

This site, Decolonize Digital, delves into my life's work around Liberatory Strategy + Tech Justice. I have spent the past couple of decades working with organizations and communities around how we dismantle systems of oppression, strategize for liberatory pathways, and because I am a technologist, I also cover issues of tech justice and how they all come together.

Welcome if you are new to my work, and welcome if you have been with me on this journey for a while, too.

There are several of you here that have been with me since my first newsletter was sent out, one by one to your emails, separated by commas, using one of the few email interfaces available at the time that only the OGs will recognize:

We've come a long way. And now, I want to share a new and robust resource with you that I have been working on for a while.

Introducing: Decolonize.Digital.

Decolonize.Digital is an online resource that is a living, growing, and evolving website bringing together different connected projects that I've been working on. Parts of the site are available to all subscribers, but parts of it require a paid subscription. I made this decision because I've put hours, weeks, and months into this tool, in addition to my decades of work and learning that even makes creating it possible. I regard this work as I would a book, workshop, or any other labor that I do that is part of my life's work.

For free subscribers to my platform liberationtoolbox.io, all of these posts, articles, videos, and various mediums have been made available across my many platforms over the many years for free. And they are still accessible to all through those different platforms.

There are people who have the gall to be upset that I am actually compensated for my labor. If this is you, you should not be here. I do not recommend that you subscribe to the free or paid options of this Liberation Toolbox if you are one of these people.

Currently, on this site, Decolonize.Digital, I have put up the De-Google Your Life (Decentering Big Tech) series, Buildsheet: Community Building series, and the Opt-Out series. I will continue adding tools to each of these series over time. I have some exciting series and tools coming up.

Why now? Why this? When wielded by oppressors, everything, including technology, becomes murderous and rapacious, it becomes digital colonization.

There are better ways for technology. Finding these other liberatory ways, this is my life's work, to Decolonize Digital.

The site will continue to morph and change as time goes on and as our needs grow and respond to the world around us.

Navigating the site, like navigating life, is not linear. Even for my different series, they do not have to be done in order. I set up Decolonize.Digital to be a site of curiosity and meandering. You can go through a few panels one day and come back to it to explore others, and so on. And you will return to it looking different because I will have rearranged and added to the tiles. It is not a to-do list. It is a holder of our wisdom together.

Decolonization happens on and offline. This is just a home for some of my decolonization work online. Most of my work happens offline, in the streets, and huddled together in rooms and in person with people I love and trust.

This really did take so many hours, days, and so much loved labor. Truly. I am grateful for you, and grateful for this work.

Thank you for being here. We are on our way to liberation, beloveds.