Have you been keeping your eyes on Palestine? Maybe you've been to protests, signed petitions, raised money, detoxed from Coca Cola, and you're still reading your social media feed with horror.
Many of us are up to our eyeballs in Google, Microsoft and other enabling tech companies. You can't just not buy a Gmail. Maybe you'd like to reduce your dependency on Big Tech, but it feels hard to even know where to start.
That was (and is) us, too 🙋🏽🙋🏼🙋🏿
Since autumn 2025, a small group of us started coming together online to help each other switch from Big Tech companies - little-by-little, app-by-app. Now we're organising our first in-person gathering, for us and anyone else who wants to join.
On Sunday 1 February, 1-5.30pm at The Liberation Centre in Brixton, let's come together to eat good food, meet great people and get started/keep going on dumping big tech for Palestine 🍉
This is a contribute-what-you-can event in many ways: pay what you can to help cover costs, actively participate on the day, and support in whatever ways you'd like to. (More explanation below.)
Want to know a bit more about us first, or to check if the event will be accessible or comfortable for you? Read on, or click ‘Contact organiser’ at the end.
What we'll be doing
- A short welcome - intros around the room, venue and accessibility info
- Lunch together - a chicken or okra meal cooked by Pal Flavors, or bring-your-own-lunch from home or nearby
- Energiser - ‘Big Tech bingo’!
- ‘What we know about Palestine, Israel and Big Tech’ - a contribute-what-you-can discussion, where we put all of our knowledge together, and raise how informed everyone in the room is
- ‘Moving away from Big Tech’ - another contribute-what-you-can discussion where we piece together our group awareness about the Big Tech we're using, the motivations/obstacles to moving away, and tips to help us move
- Speakers' corner - opportunities for anyone in the room to discuss, present, screen or perform something related for up to 10 minutes
- Intentions and goodbyes - consider our first/next actions to move away from Big Tech, and come away with new hope and people
The start time is 1pm, but you're welcome to trickle into the space from 12pm e.g. to familiarise yourself, use the space, pray, start meeting others, etc! The finish time is 5.30pm, but it's okay if you need to leave a little early, and you can also stick around until 6.30pm (when we need to give the venue back).
Read more about the venue, activities, catering and cost-sharing, including accessibility information.
What to bring
You do not need to bring ID. You cannot bring alcohol. You will be able to participate without bringing anything in particular.
If you want to, you can bring:
- Your own meals, snacks and/or drinks - there is a fridge, microwave, air fryer, crockery and cutlery in the venue
- Your own phones, tablets, laptops, chargers, pen and paper - in case you want to use them during the day
- Relevant flyers or other resources that you'd like the rest of the group to take/see - you can place them in the venue, but you'll need to remove them again after the event
- Anything you'd like to use to decorate the space for the afternoon e.g. keffiyehs, protest placards (sadly not Palestine Action ones) or posters to place around the venue, which you'll need to take back with you
The costs, and how we'll share them
Firstly, we're not an organisation. We are a small group of private citizens, who wanted to support each other get over the stress and confusion of switching from Israel-enabling tech (primarily Google). We have £0 as a group, and all organisers/hosts are unpaid and will be using the system below to book too.
We think this gathering will be great. This is how much it costs to organise, and it's a contribute-what-you-can situation to make it happen. So…
- When you book, you can choose to pay over £16, £16, under £16 or £0.
- There is also an option for people who want to donate to help the event happen, even if they aren't able to come. If that's you, thank you! We will send you updates, before and after the day!
- I'll keep updating all sign-ups on how close we are to covering our costs.
- With 8 days to go, if we can't cover our costs as they are, we'll cut our biggest cost, by cancelling our caterers. If we do this, we'll let you know so you can bring your own food, and we'll give back to you as much money as we can.
- After the event, if we have money left 😂, we'll see if you (a) want your extra back, (b) prefer to redirect it to a tip for the caterers, or (c) prefer to redirect it to e.g. the Hind Rajab Foundation, or related causes.
If you cancel with 8+ days to go, you'll get any money you've contributed back. If you need to cancel closer to the event, you'll get your money back, minus event costs. If we need to cancel, you'll get any money you've contributed back.
A note about our self-organised approach
This is not an afternoon of lectures with experts. This is a social event with a shared goal - to sound off about Palestine, Israel and Big Tech (without bigotry!), and then to help ourselves and each other to dump the Big Tech we're using. So please sign up with a mindset to contribute to the event. Be active, not passive. Contribute and share.
And a big merhaba to Palestinian groups and individuals 💃🏼 We are an amateur, self-organised group. Although we thought about organising something with Palestinian groups, individuals and activists, we don't have the money to compensate you! If you want to, please come, please bring friends, and bring any other material, resources etc that you'd like us to use/share on the day. Get in touch with Taz to do this - click ‘Contact organiser’ at the end.
Recording and collecting people's information
The booking form will collect details that help us plan this event, and send you a follow-up email afterwards - no other uses. If you want to stay in touch with people you meet on the day, please swap details on the day.
It's also possible we could take photos, videos or audio or write about the day (for instance, to share with participants and others). But we're not planning that yet. If we do, we'll warn you and ask for permission from you first.