Wikipedia co-founder's new social media platform is for the people

A new social media platform has just launched called WT:Social and its premise to combat Facebook on the front of showing new content first instead of sponsored.

The new platform comes from Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales who has promised that any user signing up to the platform won't have their user data sold. WT:Social also won't be running advertisements or have algorithms like Facebook's, which prioritize content that is sponsored or receiving a lot of engagement. WT:Social will instead show users on the platform whatever content is newest.

According to Wale's Twitter account, the new platform has already gained 160,000 members, and "isn't slowing down yet". Wales also commented on how WT:Social will be different from other big platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, he said "I've come to the conclusion that the biggest problem driving low-quality media is that it has been purely advertising-supported, and that the social networks which provide so much distribution are also purely advertising supported."

He continued and said, "Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks make revenue based on how long you stay on their site looking at and clicking on advertising. Engagement is prioritized over quality."