Digital Sovereignty Is the New Influencer Status, with Citation Needed's Molly White

Thanks to the rise of the open social web, it’s more viable than ever for creators to take back ownership and control of the distribution of their work, their connection to their audiences, and their livelihoods overall. Real alternatives to walled-garden platforms aren’t just theoretical ideas — they’re here, and getting stronger every day.No one knows this better than Molly White, the researcher, writer and software engineer behind the Citation Needed newsletter and the project Web3 Is Going Just Great. Molly’s not only an outspoken advocate for an open, ethical web, she’s also cracked the code on being a successful, autonomous creator herself. During this conversation with Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, recorded live at SXSW 2025 on March 9, 2025, White explains her setup, philosophy, and learnings, and takes smart questions from the audience at the end.Highlights include discussions of:Importance of owning your online identityStrategies for digital ownershipMoving content freely without platform constraintsMonetization and sustainable modelsVideo content, e-commerce, surveillance capitalism Mentioned in this episode:GhostCory Doctorow’s talk, “Tensions in Creative Labor & Generative AI”🔎 You can find Molly at mollywhite.net.✚ You can connect with Mike McCue at @[email protected] and @mmccue.bsky.social.🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new beta from the people at Flipboard: https://about.surf.social/