We’ve never seen this much engagement before. So for this next round in our Defund Fascism series, we’re turning the spotlight on YOU.

Figuring out where to put our money and data without harming democracy can feel overwhelming. But your crowdsourced suggestions proved we aren’t alone, and introduced us to new ethical alternatives to big tech and everyday platforms we hadn’t even heard of yet.

Here are some of our favorites:

📱 Goods Unite Us:  An app that shows you a company’s political donations before you spend a dime with them.

📸 UpScrolled : An Instagram alternative that doesn’t shadowban you or sell your data.

💻 Framework: Laptops you’re actually allowed to fix and repair yourself.

♻️ Back Market : A marketplace to buy and sell previously owned technology.

🌳 Ecosia : A browser and search engine that puts its profits into planting trees (and has an easy no-AI option!).

🔍 Startpage: Google search results without the tracking and data selling.

📚 Hoopla: Free books, movies, and music streamed through your library card.

🎧 Off the Grid: A podcast full of practical tips for relying less on for-profit everything.

If you have others that haven’t been mentioned yet, leave them in the comments below!

And because there were way too many recommendations to squeeze into one reel, we compiled every single one of them into a directory here: lifewithmachines.media/…