A gaggle of outstanding tech leaders and nonprofit executives within the US have launched a $30 million marketing campaign known as “Free Our Feeds” to construct a social media ecosystem free from “billionaire control”, Business Insider reported.
This comes days after Meta announced controversial changes to its content moderation policies, such as scaling back its fact-checking program.(File)
The report comes days after Meta announced controversial changes to its content moderation policies, such as scaling back its fact-checking programme.
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The initiative, which aims to be operational by the end of 2025, aims to help anyone build their own social media platforms by providing independent infrastructure around the AT Protocol, an open-source technology.
This is the same technology that powers the Bluesky social network.
“For the first time, we have a clear pathway to securing the future of social media as a tool for connection, creativity, and joy,” the report quoted Nabiha Syed, executive director of Mozilla Foundation as saying. “But it will take community-driven resources and independent infrastructure to ensure it remains free from the pressures of venture capital and billionaire capture.”
Syed can be one of many 9 custodians overseeing the mission.
In response to the report, the marketing campaign’s speedy aim is to lift $4 million as a part of the bigger $30 million over three years effort to determine a public curiosity basis that can help the AT Protocol and construct unbiased infrastructure, together with a second “relay” system.
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The relay is a backup index of all the network’s content, allowing both developers and users to access posts even if Bluesky restricts data access.
So far, the campaign has raised nearly $18,000 from 273 donors on GoFundMe.
“We’re in a world proper now the place each new startup is both crypto or AI,” the report quoted Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor turned tech critic who is also backing the initiative. “If this works, it’ll make the world a significantly better place.”
The marketing campaign’s custodians embody executives from Mozilla, the Social Internet Basis, and different nonprofit expertise organizations.
This comes after Bluesky, which positions itself as an alternative choice to X (Previously Twitter) noticed explosive progress over the previous few months, reaching practically 26 million customers by the top of 2024.
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Half of those customers joined within the final six weeks after Donald Trump’s election victory.
It’s now within the last phases of elevating new capital led by Bain Capital Ventures, valuing it at round $700 million. Nevertheless, the custodians really feel as a result of it’s enterprise capital-backed, it might additionally quickly face the identical strain different platforms do.