So, the big question is – Has Facebook met its match?
Last week a new social media platform was launched which incorporates more transparency, security and privacy then any of the other social media giants. The platform is back by the ‘Hacktivist’ group Anonymous; it encrypts all messages thus shielding the user’s data from governments and advertisers.
Minds.com acts and appears the same as any other social network; providing the user’s followers with the latest updates etc. and allowing their friends to comment/promote posts.
Now here’s the big deal about it. Minds.com does not aim to profit from data gathering in any way, shape or form. In fact it is the total opposite, everything will be encrypted. Minds.com will reward its users for any interaction with posts, uploads etc. (voting, commenting and uploading). These rewards will come to the user in the form of points, and these can then be exchanged for ‘views’ of your posts. So, the more active you are, the more everything you input to the site will be promoted by the network as a whole:
“For every mobile vote, comment, remind, swipe & upload you earn points which can be exchanged for views on posts of your choice. It’s a new web paradigm that gives everyone a voice,” – reads a quote from the Minds.com website.
Now for the nitty-gritty. The content uploaded/posted to the site will be boosted through a transparent algorithm, unlike Facebook’s method, which is pretty much, a mystery to all. As well as this, Minds.com is open source which really gives its users the power that other sites cannot even come close to. The user’s themselves are basically in control of the networks upkeep and design so the possibilities for the sites growth are tremendous.
“Our stance is the users deserve the control of social media in every sense,” says Minds.com founder Bill Ottman told Business Insider.
“A lot of companies will claim privacy and say they’re encrypted,” Ottman said, as quoted by CNET. “But it’s not real encryption because we have no way of inspecting the code to see if there are backdoors.”
As mentioned previously, the site has attracted the attention of Anonymous which is calling on programmers and designers to help develop the social network.
“Anonymous is initiating a call to hackers, designers, creators and programmers to unite worldwide. Let us collaborate on the code of Minds.com and build a top site that is truly of the people, by the people and for the people,” Anonymous ART of Revolution posted on its Facebook page.
Before the official launch date, the site had already gained 60 million visits, said Ottman. Many of those users were people “interested in alternative media,” with interests like online freedom and citizen journalism.