Is buying a Fairphone really ethical?

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DomtheCuber
DomtheCuber
Arena Apprentice
Original poster
• 6h ago

The Fairphone 6 just launched, and I love what Fairphone is trying to do, but at the same time, I don't feel like their goal of all smartphones being built to last and free from worker exploitation can be achieved simply through making an ethical phone company. Rather, I think that in the short term, we need stronger regulations on sustainability like the EU battery repairability law coming in 2027, and in the long term we need to shift towards an economic system that isn't about corporations accumulating as much money as possible though the overproduction of goods and the exploitation of workers. Until we make that future arrive, I feel like just buying a used phone or keeping your old phone for longer is the most ethical consumer choice you can make.


However, I've heard some people argue that the Fairphone is doing a very good thing by showing that a more sustainable future for phones is possible, even in a system where sustainability is discouraged the second it becomes anything more than a marketing term used to greenwash the actions of big companies. And by doing this, Fairphone is not only moving the industry forward to more sustainable practices but also encouraging stronger regulation on other phone companies by showing that building a phone that isn't so anti-consumer can be done if these bigger companies, which operate on a greater scale and have more resources available to do so, actually try. And many of these people would argue that because of this noble mission, if someone has the financial means to buy a Fairphone over other brands, then choosing to do so would actually be a more pro-environment and pro-worker choice than buying a used or refurbished phone, even though the Fairphone would take more resources to create compared to a used phone and would still result in some worker exploitation (although much less compared to other brands).


So I want to know what you guys think. Is buying a Fairphone really the most ethical choice, or is doing so just distracting from broader, more systemic change that will do much more to help workers and our planet in the long term?

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