Not another social media app!
Don’t worry, this one’s… kinder.
A new social media company has noticed all the negativity on the top social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (just to name a few). And they’ve decided to do something about it.
The apps that are attempting to moderate social media.
Telepath is working on creating a hate speech-free platform – where fake news or hate can’t be spread. Instead, they’re focusing on kindness.
All the top social media apps try to control hate speech and fake news, but so far they haven’t been able to accomplish what Telegraph claims it will accomplish in terms of moderating its content efficiently.
How is Telepath different?
Unlike other new social media initiatives, Telepath isn’t focused on developing a new sharing format.
Instead, Telepath’s founders (former employees at Quora) are channeling their nostalgia for the “childhood” days of the web. When communities were smaller, people were able to connect, and turn into real-world friends. The founders hope to recapture this moment and at the same time reduce the hate that’s far too common online.
The #1 rule on the platform is that users must promise to “be kind” when joining. Also, you must use your real name and a real phone number associated with a SIM card. There is no tolerance for attacking identity, violent content, porn, harassment of any sorts, or the spread of “fake news”
To moderate content, Telepath has tried to create rules around how polite conversations should function online with rules like “don’t circle the drain,” meaning don’t keep trying to have the last word in a heated debate.
Good-bye online trolls.
Right now, Telepath has 4,000+ users in its private beta with only a two-person moderation team looking at thousands of posts and making sure nothing unapproved goes “viral”.
To ban the trolls, when someone breaks the rules, a moderator gives a warning and may require them to take down content. But if a user keeps breaking the rules then they’re banned – and since the platform is linked to a phone number, there’s no easy way to go back.
How are they handling fake news?
To combat “fake news” Telepath is working to develop a reputation score for users and trust scores for publishers. For publishers, the “trust score” will be based on a percentage of how often they are factually correct.
Telepath wants to emphasize proper moderating content, blocking and banning users when necessary, and punishing publications that spread misinformation.
What’s the “Kindness” carve-out?
And yet, despite all this extra effort, Telepath doesn’t only show kind and supportive content.
People are still allowed to criticize on Telepath, mainly public figures in what they call a “kindness” carve-out space. There, users can criticize public figures when it doesn’t appear to be problematic, and not violating any rules. A sort of “gray area” of the platform, so to speak.
The kindness rule isn’t there to protect public figures from criticism, and it still wants to encourage discussion on different topics and create new ideas from one another, but respectfully.
Since Telepath is still in its early development stages, it’s still too soon to tell if it will go mainstream. It’s also still in “closed beta” for an indefinite length of time, and you’ll need an invite to join.
So, it won’t be a top app any time soon.
Do you think many people would be interested in this type of platform? Are you? Or is another social media app the last thing you need?
Let us know your thoughts down below!