How social are we with digital media?

At Boulevard, we highly value the safe handling of personal data and open and honest communication. Therefore, we are questioning various social media platforms and their privacy policies.

Also the use of AI is not yet a given for us. How can we use it safely, and how sustainable is the use of AI? This year, we will experiment with it, gather information, and engage in discussions within and outside our organization about how we want to approach this.

Earlier this year, we decided to stop using the platform X. We were already less active on it and do not support the direction this platform is now taking.

We also occasionally get asked why we are not on TikTok. This is also a conscious choice due to the uncertainty about privacy on that platform.

There is increasing criticism of Meta's policies (Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp). We share concerns about the reliability and integrity of these platforms, and there are more and more reports that privacy-sensitive information is being shared with third parties.

Transition 
The first step we have taken is to leave WhatsApp for our internal communication. We now use Signal for this purpose.

For those who are not familiar with Signal: it is a privacy-friendly alternative to WhatsApp. The main difference between the two platforms is that Signal prioritizes safeguarding users' privacy and has no commercial interests, such as selling data and advertisements, because the organization behind the service is non-profit.

Is Signal the perfect app? No, as an American organization, it is also dependent on any new legislation and obligations imposed by the government. However, at this moment, we support Signal's approach more than WhatsApp's, and therefore, we have made the switch.

We will continue to use Facebook and Instagram for now. We still need these as part of our marketing strategy. Many of our visitors and potential festival attendees use these platforms to get information about the festival and its programme.

We are in discussions with other (theater)festivals and our visitors to explore alternative platforms. This is still a puzzle, as the alternative channels are used by fewer people, making it harder to reach as many people if we switch. We hope that in the future, there will be an alternative we can move to.

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