At a time when established social media platforms are facing criticism and turbulence — from TikTok's temporary shutdown to Meta's withdrawal from fact-checking and growing criticism over political content moderation — a new approach to social media is gaining some attention.

"Help us put control back into the hands of the people!" declares Canadian developer Daniel Supernault, whose open-source platforms aim to provide privacy-focused alternatives to mainstream social media.

Supernault's Kickstarter campaign, launched on Jan. 24, has already exceeded its initial CA$50,000 goal, TechCrunch reports, raising CA$93,022 (approximately US$64,839) as of 11:02 a.m. PT today. The funding will support the development of three platforms within the Fediverse — a decentralized network of interconnected social media services. These platforms include Pixelfed, Loops and Sup, designed as privacy-focused alternatives to Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp, respectively. Each platform rejects traditional venture capital funding and ad-based revenue models in favor of community-driven development.

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Link to the Kickstarter

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[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

So get them on there.

"Hey dummies, this here is the place that isn't trying to fuck us, let's move it over."

For me the way bigger issue is clunkiness. The fediverse needs a massive push for UI, usability, intuitiveness. Not having that will turn people away, but part of what will get it to happen is more people showing up and saying "stop making this otherwise objective improvement so janky that I second guess coming here in the first place." Maybe a few will be inspired to help, if they have the skills.

To everybody working on the fediverse in any capacity: thank you. You are building a digital Noah's Ark for the future.