Own the Mic: Freedom of Speech, Jimmy Kimmel, and Why Creators Need Ownership Now

Quick note before we start: yes, I’m posting this late. It’s been about two months since the Jimmy Kimmel situation. I had these thoughts the week it happened—I just… didn’t hit publish. Life.

On September 10 (World Suicide Prevention Day), a public tragedy collided with late‑night commentary, and the internet did what it does: fight, defend, cancel, un‑cancel, repeat. I’m not here to re‑litigate who was right. What stuck with me was how fast someone else’s platform can flip your switch. One minute you’re live; the next, you’re not. That whiplash taught me something simple: don’t build your creative life on borrowed rails.

This isn’t a political piece. It’s a reminder to creators (and me) to take ownership.

We used to own things—CDs, DVDs, boxed software, photo prints. Now we rent access. They call it convenience; it feels like control. Miss a payment? Gone. Terms change? Too bad. A policy shifts? So does your reach. If your work lives only on platforms, you’re portable only at their mercy.

So here’s the plan I’m following—clean and doable:

1. Get a domain you control. Treat it like a deed, not a handle.
2. Put your work on a home base you can back up and move (self‑hosted WordPress, Ghost, or a simple static site). Export often.
3. Build an email list you can carry anywhere. Back it up monthly.
4. Publish on your site first, then syndicate elsewhere. Link back to your original.
5. Keep mirrors and archives (cloud + offline). Buy external SSDs (minimum 1 TB) and a couple of flash drives; keep two copies in two places. Don’t rely only on the cloud (Google Drive, Proton Drive, etc.). Own your podcast RSS. Keep a local copy of your videos.
6. Have a one‑page de‑platforming plan: where you’ll post updates, where the backups live, how you’ll notify people.

Why now? Because the internet is tilting. EU “Chat Control” proposals keep resurfacing (more scanning, less privacy). Pavel Durov literally skipped celebrating his birthday to warn that the free web is shrinking. You don’t have to love Telegram to get the message: time is short. Own your distribution.

Also: freedom of speech isn’t the same as freedom of reach. Platforms are businesses. They moderate for brand safety. That’s their right. Your counter‑move is simple: build something they can’t throttle—your site, your list, your backups, your mirrors.

If you do nothing else tonight, do this:

• Buy your domain.
• Put up a simple homepage + one flagship post.
• Start an email list and add a short welcome note.
• Save a de‑platforming plan next to your backups.

I’ll keep using platforms, but I’ll treat them like ports, not homes. If a switch flips tomorrow, I won’t vanish. I’ll still be under my own roof.

Not louder. Just more sovereign.