Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Is Working On A Twitter Rival
Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, it's been a tumultuous time on the site. Understandably, a certain percentage of users are not happy at all with the sudden and drastic change in leadership. Many users are rightly worried that the promised lack of moderation and supposed "censorship" will leave users from vulnerable communities susceptible to harassment, bullying, threats, and a host of other problems.
Predictably, Twitter alternatives have popped up in an effort to attract a new userbase who wants to escape from the prospect of a Musk run and moderated Twittersphere. One such existing Twitter alternative is Mastadon, a flexible open-source social media platform that looks promising but has its own host of pitfalls. Some enterprising Twitter users have even suggested starting their own social media platform. Jimmy Wales, the founder of everyone's favorite college paper primary source Wikipedia, has proposed plans for a rival to the Elon's bird-site.
A social media platform based on trust
While still in its infancy, Wales hopes to turn WT.Social into a full-fledged social media platform that does away with the algorithm and will "rank based on trust," according to a Twitter thread posted this morning. According to WT.Social's homepage, it calls itself "The non-toxic social network."
Essentially, instead of relying on an algorithm determined to make you scroll forever, WT.Social will prioritize content based on which accounts the users trust. According to Wales: "I don't know if it will be perfect, and I'm sure we'll have to adjust on the way, but it has to be better than this hellsite, yeah?" A social media platform based entirely on trust may have its own downsides, but it could also be a step in the right direction. Wales says that this new trust-based ranking system will be at the center of a "totally revamped" version of the app that will be going live at some point in the near future.
The future will tell whether or not WT.Social will defeat twitter and become a safe haven for users hoping to escape Musk's tutelage. With many users thinking of escaping Twitter, it's only a matter of time until a viable competitor shows up to take up the slack. Whatever that future site will be, it will likely have its own host of teething issues.