Within hours of the deal for TikTok’s U.S. operations being announced last week, Issam Hijazi noticed a big uptick in users to his social media platform UpScrolled. That stream of disgruntled users fleeing TikTok over censorship concerns turned into a flood this week, crashing UpScrolled’s servers.UpScrolled, launched last July, supports text posts, photos, short-form videos, stories and other features. It claims to be a platform with “no censorship” and “no shadowbans.” On Monday, it ranked among the top 10 free apps on Apple’s App Store, and No. 2 among social network apps. It hit more than 1 million users from just 40,000.
“You all showed up so fast our servers tapped out,” UpScrolled said in an Instagram post on Monday. “We’re a tiny team building an alternative to the platforms that stopped listening to you. Right now, we’re scaling and running on caffeine to keep up with what YOU started. Bear with us. We’re on it.”
UpScrolled is backed by the Tech for Palestine incuba
... Show more...Within hours of the deal for TikTok’s U.S. operations being announced last week, Issam Hijazi noticed a big uptick in users to his social media platform UpScrolled. That stream of disgruntled users fleeing TikTok over censorship concerns turned into a flood this week, crashing UpScrolled’s servers.UpScrolled, launched last July, supports text posts, photos, short-form videos, stories and other features. It claims to be a platform with “no censorship” and “no shadowbans.” On Monday, it ranked among the top 10 free apps on Apple’s App Store, and No. 2 among social network apps. It hit more than 1 million users from just 40,000.
“You all showed up so fast our servers tapped out,” UpScrolled said in an Instagram post on Monday. “We’re a tiny team building an alternative to the platforms that stopped listening to you. Right now, we’re scaling and running on caffeine to keep up with what YOU started. Bear with us. We’re on it.”
UpScrolled is backed by the Tech for Palestine incubator, an advocacy project that helps fund tech initiatives to support the Palestinian cause. Hijazi, a Palestinian-Australian, spoke to Rest of World on the sidelines of a conference on Saturday.
supersquirrel
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •like this
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Jännät
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •It's so common for "anti-censorship" to be code for "Nazi-friendly" that I'm immediately suspicious of any platform that uses that as a selling point.
Well, plus the fact that it's a closed source nonfederated system, so it's just a case of "from the frying pan into another, slightly cooler frying pan"
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Iced Raktajino
in reply to Jännät • • •I'm similarly suspicious, but it's not just code for "nazi-friendly" but also crackpots, maladaptives, etc. Rational people who read and say "anti-censorship" in this context know it means that it's not beholden to corporate or government interests. But everyone else seems to want to interpret that as "I can say whatever I want! How dare you mod anything I say?! Freeze-peach, y'all!"
I wish they'd pick a different term for these non-corporate alternatives, but I don't have a better suggestion to offer right now.
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alyaza [they/she]
in reply to Jännät • • •i don't know if it's a function of the ideological bent or just because the gigantic influx of users has totally swamped their moderation, but yes it does have problems with fascists as of writing
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Jännät
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •Gee whiz, imagine my surprise
Edit: they're ostensibly banning trans people ("ostensibly" because it's not like I can verify the claims, not that I don't believe them), so I guess the "platforms shouldn't get to decide who exists" platform has no problem deciding trans people "shouldn't exist"?
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stressballs
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •like this
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Shar(yna)Tran/Shark(aeopteryx)
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •tropicflite
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •yessikg likes this.
reallykindasorta
in reply to Jännät • • •Jännät
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reallykindasorta
in reply to Jännät • • •Jul (they/she)
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Jännät
in reply to Jul (they/she) • • •Exactly. It's been proven time and time again that if you have absolutely zero moderation except for blatantly illegal content, you'll eventually be running a Nazi bar.
Although in UpScrolled's case, I'm not sure if they weren't explicitly out to build a Nazi bar since they do seem to have a huge Nazi and antisemitism problem (well, problem for anyone who's not a Nazi anyhow) and they've apparently mass-banned trans people. So this profusion of Nazis might be a "it's a feature and not a bug" scenario, even though their TOS seemingly disallows hate speech.
Also, for an "anti-censorship" platform it's funny that they ban any kind of "adult" content.
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Excel
in reply to Jännät • • •mic_check_one_two
in reply to Jännät • • •Yeah, I tried to give it an honest shot. Made an account and opened the Discover page. The very first post was an antisemitic “the Jews are secretly running the world” conspiracy theory post. Whatever, it’s inevitable on an anti-censorship app. Not a great first impression, but I’m willing to shrug it off as a fluke.
Then three or four posts later, there was a blatant “Hitler was right about the Jews and the holocaust wasn’t enough” post, made by an account that was dedicated to glorifying Hitler. Again, this is on the Discover page for a brand new account. Meaning it’s what the algorithm is serving to users by default.
I made another comment about it (with screenshots) a day or two ago. Here is the link.
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Jännät
in reply to mic_check_one_two • • •That's… that's terrible. Like I replied to that just a while ago, I wouldn't be surprised if this leads to further radicalisation of Americans if they do actually end up using UpScrolled.
Putting my tinfoil hat on, this actually feels like a reich-wing ploy
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mic_check_one_two
in reply to Jännät • • •like this
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Chris Remington
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •There are other TikTok alternatives worth mentioning:
Loops.video
loops.videolike this
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chromodynamic
in reply to Chris Remington • • •Panini
in reply to chromodynamic • • •Kissaki
in reply to Panini • • •We are on Lemmy though. It's certainly relevant to me.
I don't need it to be a popular app for others when is not for me.
artyom
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •So they don't censor CSAM?
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alyaza [they/she]
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artyom
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null
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •__反いじめ戦隊
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idriss
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •compostgoblin
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spiderhamster
in reply to compostgoblin • • •compostgoblin
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in reply to spiderhamster • • •irelephant [he/him]
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Mwalimu
in reply to alyaza [they/she] • • •𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘
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belated_frog_pants
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