Wikipedia's Social Media Platform Expected To Replace Facebook And Twitter

Wikipedia has credited a lot to our literacy amidst the digital era. The encyclopedia founder Jimmy Wales also started launching a new online publication named Wikitribune two years ago with a library of original stories authored by trustworthy writers, but Wikitribune didn’t get people’s attention at all. Wales now is changing the plan to combat fake news when re-launching Wikitribune under the name WT:Social, a type of social media for sharing news. The platform is said to become an alternative to current social-networking giants like Facebook and Twitter.

In general, WT:Social also owns basic features we usually get from other platforms, such as sharing articles. However, WT:Social has another way to power up itself: Instead of harvesting money from advertising, it’ll get funded from donations. According to Wales, a handful of social media companies now focus on the advertising-based business model, and that’s problematic. The catch is that the huge winner is always full of low-quality content.

In addition, WT:Social will display the newest links/comments first. In comparison, the algorithms of Facebook and Twitter prioritize posts with the most likes or comments, making them appear on the top of the Newsfeed. However, the WT:Social is also about to add an “upvote” button.

Like other social media sites, users can join WT:Social for free. Talking to Financial Times, Wales revealed that his ambition is a platform with a user base of 50 million, even 500 million people.