A group of alumni from the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia has launched a new Canadian social media platform they say will provide a "homegrown alternative to U.S.-dominated" sites.
The goal is to give Canadians a place to communicate and connect without the influence of "big-tech algorithms that are out of our control," said Northsocial.ca co-founder Colin Schmidt.
"We're pro Canadian, we're not anti anything in terms of our attitudes here," he said in an interview Thursday. "We don't believe we're going to replace Facebook, but we believe there needs to be something that supplements it."
A news release from the university says the platform is built with Canadian technology and private data is stored on Canadian servers.
The website is live, with an app on the way, and Schmidt said they plan to add groups, a built-in marketplace and gaming features.
Northsocial.ca includes a vertical scroll of posts, similar to Facebook or X, that allows users to comment and react, but there are some distinctive Canadian flares, including a profile icon depicting a person in a toque and checkered shirt, a public forum icon of a honking Canada goose and a private messages icon showing maple leaves inside speech bubbles.
"Those things are subtle, but they help kind of build the brand and the identity of why people are here," he said of the Canadian touches.
He said the decision by the founders was that the default for the platform would be "no algorithms." The feed, he explained, is chronological and the team implemented a "plus" function that will group posts that are sent too quickly from the same account to prevent people from flooding the feed.
"There are some simple mechanics like that that aren't really the same kind of algorithms that generate the non-stop doom scrolling that the big-tech players are known for."
He cited a California lawsuit last month in which a jury found Meta and YouTube were designed to hook young users without concern for their well-being and awarded the plaintiff US$3 million in damages.
"It's actually kind of interesting that at the time that we're sort of starting to provide an antidote to that, the cracks in the legal framework that have protected the big tech companies have really been exposed in just the last few weeks," Schmidt said
He noted the biggest challenge for a new platform like Northsocial.ca is building a user base, which is now their focus.
"We've basically gone from a few hundred users to — we're just closing in on 5,000 users at this point," he said, noting that jump happened over the past two months.
The dream, he said, "is absolutely to be able to provide all of the tools necessary for Canadians to be able to find and connect with each other regardless of the subject or purpose."
"So, instead of being focused on consumption of doom scrolling type media, we want to be focused on connecting people."
The platform is owned by Zynim Media Inc., a Chilliwack-based company.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Giordano Ciampini
