Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales creates alternative ad-free social network

Wales believes that the issue uniting all popular social networks lies in a business model built exclusively on advertising.

Jimmy Wales, the mastermind behind Wikipedia, decided to create a social network called WT:Social, which is also based on wiki principles. Unlike all popular social networks that are heavily based on advertising business models, Wales’ project will be monetized exclusively through donations. 

The issue with Facebook and Twitter goes beyond the fact that both companies make money on advertising: ad principles are also applied to content promotion. As a result, clickbait-style posts make it to the front page, even though they do not present significant value. However, the algorithms behind smart news feeds are crafted in a way that promotes this type of content.

The WT:Social news feed will be based on the time of publication, without the option of moving posts up using paid methods. The news feed will be moderated by users of WT:Social rather than its staff members, which follows the principles of Wikipedia. 

On WT:Social, almost all content can be edited. If someone posts fake news on the network, it will be deleted. Jimmy Wales believes that this system will teach users to adopt a more conscientious approach towards publications.

Within a month since the inception of WT:Social, the number of users reached 50 thousand.