Is UpScrolled what we've all been waiting for?

For those unfamiliar, UpScrolled is an emerging social media platform styling itself as an ethical alternative to Big Tech, with a distinctively pro-Palestine stance. In the words of its founder, Issam Hijazi:

"I found this gap in the market, with a lot of people asking why there is no alternative to the Big Tech platforms for their content, which was getting censored," he continued. "So I thought, why don’t we build our own? I just rolled up my sleeves, and built it."

So, how does it actually differ? A closer look at its foundational choices reveals a disappointing adherence to the old playbook.

Protocols

A protocol governs how users communicate within an application. X has posts, likes, and shares; so does Instagram. Yet users on these platforms cannot interact.

Why? Closed protocols. Each platform is a walled garden, designed to capture and ultimately monetise its audience.

Open protocols, like the ones email uses, allow different providers (Gmail, Outlook, Proton, Mailbox etc.) to interoperate and talk to one another.

Can open protocols work with social media? Yes they can and they do! The Fediverse (Mastodon, Pixelfed, Loops, Peertube etc.) operates social media that run on this open decentralised principle. So does the emerging Nostr, championed by Edward Snowden as the future of free speech.

While UpScrolled states it may move in this direction eventually and is building “interoperable by design”, time will tell. Choosing a closed protocol is not a neutral decision. It’s disappointing that UpScrolled ignored the chance to build on existing protocols that genuinely aim to free users from corporate capture and centralised control.

Open Source

UpScrolled is not open source. In an era where transparency is increasingly mainstream, this is a significant choice. The only way to truly verify what a platform does with your data (your personal details, what you post, what you draft, what you like, what you watch, how long you watch it for, what you share, who you share it with, etc.) is to examine its code. Reasons for not sharing code typically boil down to one thing: avoiding public scrutiny.

Censorship

UpScrolled states it is "committed to protecting freedom of expression — but with that freedom comes responsibility," and will restrict content involving "illegal activity, hate speech, bullying, harassment, explicit nudity, unlicensed copyrighted material, or anything intended to cause harm." This is standard stuff but the critical issue is that a private company remains the sole arbiter of what constitutes harm.

Open protocols attempt to remove the power of a central authority altogether.

In the Fediverse, you join a community with agreed-upon rules. Enforcement is community-led; if you disagree with the rules, you can join or found another. There is no overarching central authority.

Nostr describes itself as censorship-resistant. While the servers that implement the protocol can themselves apply restrictions, the protocol itself does not censor. If your post is blocked by one server, it will move through others that have no restrictions.

UpScrolled has opted for the traditional, centralised model. History demonstrates that this power is rarely wielded benignly. Trust should be built into the system, not granted based on promises.

Data Protection

UpScrolled hosts its data in Dublin, citing "robust digital infrastructure", "strict data protection standards" and a “reputation for strict data protection and privacy standards. It’s a location that reflects our commitment to performance, reliability, and user rights.” For anyone familiar with the tech industry and the Data Protection Commission in Ireland, this reasoning is pretty lame.

Contrast this with the Fediverse, where data is stored on community servers with transparent policies, or with Nostr, where data storage is decentralised across relays, including the user’s own if so desired, eliminating central data retention entirely.

UpScrolled had a choice. It made a poor one and is now attempting to frame it as the gold standard.

Algorithms and Advertising

UpScrolled promises user control, claiming there will be no “black-box AI,” but admits it may introduce “additional feeds that use AI to optimise recommendations.” Its closed-source code means any algorithm it uses would, by definition, be a black box.

This is particularly concerning as UpScrolled plans to place advertisements in users’ feeds. While perhaps understandable for a startup that needs to be financially viable, airtight guarantees are needed to ensure algorithmic feeds don’t silently evolve to serve revenue, not users.

Neither Fediverse nor Nostr have algorithms built into their protocols. Users choose what they see through manual lists and follows. On the protocol level, there is no invisible hand manipulating the feed. If a Nostr client (an app that uses the protocol) introduces shady algorithms, you can choose to use another one without losing any of your content or followers.

To wind up, UpScrolled is a private enterprise with a CEO and all the trappings of a corporate social media platform. It will make profits by offering consumers choice, particularly those pissed off at the Zionist and pro-genocide bent of the main social media platforms. UpScrolled will be a more welcoming social media for pro-Palestinian rights advocates and that is not unimportant in this climate. But beyond its marketing and the political leanings of its founders, it looks like old wine in new bottles.

It all depends on what you’re looking for.