IRCNow Helped Techrights
IRCNow is not too well known, one might say it is underrated. Most people - even IRC geeks - never heard of it, but it helps many IRC network get set up, contributing to network diversity (an essential form of autonomy) in 'IRC space'. Since we've just mentioned our transition away from Freenode and then our transition away from the US [1, 2] it would make sense to also give some well overdue credit to IRCNow.
In the coming years we'll say more about what IRCNow did for us.
If you want to gain more independence or "sovereignty" over your communications and need help setting things up (no prior experience setting up/configuring IRC), go to IRCNow or contact them. They do valuable work and are very friendly. They can also do XMPP.
Those of us who value privacy (for instance to protect sources) can recognise these values aren't shared or recognised by our supposedly enlightened governments. Shouting at officials won't help; we need technical solutions to these problems.
The Federation is not the solution, it's just another problem. Its purpose is very different. █