Welcome to part two of my data security series. Today, I’ll be covering alternatives to big tech’s social media, plus some services and tools for data security. If you haven’t already, check out part one here:

A guide to De-Googling your life - by Ilana Guckenheimer

As companies collect more of our data, it's easier for them to track activists.

Before we get into social media, I would like you to know about the fediverse. The fediverse is a decentralized social protocol. It connects different servers (i.e. mastodon.social, masto.ai, infosec.exchange, etc.) or ‘planets’ as shown in the video below, together into a federated universe or fediverse for short.

This section uses some of the platforms mentioned in this article written by Alexa Speed from . (you should go subscribe to them for more Big Tech alternatives)

Cut Off the Spigot

Social Media Alternatives Now That TikTok’s Changed Ownership

TikTok has been officially sold to these companies as of January 22, 2026…

Read more

a month ago · 261 likes · 38 comments · Cut Off the Spigot

Social media alternatives

Mastodon

Mastodon is a decentralized social network, similar to Twitter, but you are able to have your account hosted on different servers. You can interact with other users from other servers, start your own server, and make posts with a 500 character limit.

Follow Kids For Justice on Mastodon: @kids4justice.mastodon.social

Loops

Loops is a TikTok and Instagram Reels alternative. They are currently in an open-beta stage and are gradually updating the site. Loops has strict privacy pledge and there are not ads in app. I would recommend this platform more to people who make content for now, as I think it needs more quality videos to be able to take off.

Pixelfed

Pixelfed is here mainly as an honorable mention. Its meant to be an Instagram or Tumblr alternative, with photo and text posts. You can connect your Mastodon account making it easy to join. From my personal use, I did not enjoy using this platform, as the UI was clunky and there werent many good posts. There are however about 1 million users across different servers.

Data security for the average activist/organizer

As governments get more and more advanced in their survallince techniques, we need to adapt and figure out ways to keep our data safe and secure. Large corporations such as Gmail, Meta, and Microsoft make consumer spyware that only benefits them. I have collected some tools and services I have personally used that put peoples privacy over profit.

RiseUp is a service that provides tools for organizers and journalists such as encrypted email and VPN for completely free on a request access basis. You can view their security and privacy standards here.

Have I Been Pwned is a service that will securely check if your email address was leaked in a breach, using the data from 941 services. If it finds anything, immediately check your accounts for nefarious behavior, change your passwords and enable two-factor-authentication.

Virus Total checks any files you drop into it (text, application, code, etc) for malware across hundreds of antivirus software. This is a very useful tool to use for any suspicious emails that have attachments with PDFs or compressed folders.

If you are interested in donating to an organization right now, consider purchasing some Kids For Justice merchandise. All proceeds from this campaign go to Human Rights First, and organization helping immigrants and marginalized communities.