Ben Waldman is one of five co-founders of Gander, which is expected to publicly launch in October.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail
A new social-media platform built by Canadians, for Canadians, and operated in Canada, will publicly launch in October with support from some of the most prominent names in the Canadian innovation sector.
Titled Gander Social Inc., the app was created by five Canadian co-founders who grew frustrated with the torrent of trolls, disinformation and divisive content they experienced on other platforms, largely owned by American tech giants.
When Donald Trump was elected president for a second term, co-founder and CEO Ben Waldman said this frustration morphed into fear, as conversations around data sovereignty – ensuring Canadian control over access, usage and storage – became more pervasive.
“What it came down to was the fear that, without firing a shot, we could easily be annexed by Trump issuing an executive order that all of his friends would immediately adhere to and shut down all of the cloud services that we use every day in business and government, and we would just simply be offline,” he said.
“And that was a scary moment.”
Gander will feature written posts and videos, giving users the choice to tailor their feed to the types of content they most enjoy. Just like the social-media platform Bluesky, Gander is built on AT Protocol, which means it’s part of an open, decentralized network and not controlled by a billionaire.
To ensure data sovereignty for Canadian users, Mr. Waldman said Gander is working with Canadian cloud-service provider ThinkOn to build a parallel network of servers entirely in Canada.
Therefore, users will have the option to toggle between having their posts appear on the larger, open network or the Canada-only network. This will also enable Gander on the domestic network to control its own privacy and moderation rules, which will adhere to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Changing U.S. relationship has thrust Canada’s data sovereignty into the spotlight
With the rise of dad influencers, a more equal version of parenting goes viral
Among the app’s strategic advisers and investors is Arlene Dickinson, Dragon’s Den star and founder and general partner at District Capital Ventures. Ms. Dickinson said she reached out to the platform’s founders earlier this year after seeing something about it online.
She thought it was a smart, timely idea, given the deterioration of safe, online spaces and growing emphasis on data sovereignty.
The world doesn’t need another social-media platform, she said, but it could stand to replace some of the ones it already has. This is where Gander comes in, with its Canadian approach, she said.
“My belief is that people will come to this network, to see if it’s as different as we can build it to be, and they will stay because it is,” Ms. Dickinson said.
The parallel, local network design is also what makes Gander a feasible business model, Ms. Dickinson said, because it can translate this model to other countries or communities who want to set up their own sovereign network.
Mr. Waldman says more than 9,000 people have signed up for Gander since it launched its early access program in April.Ashley Fraser/The Globe and Mail
Providing the option to switch off of the larger, decentralized network may be contentious among some users, Mr. Waldman said, since it creates a closed door in an otherwise open space. But he said it comes down to protecting Canadians.
“At the end of the day, when your President isn’t exactly being the nicest to us, we have to be in a position where we can communicate, hopefully, in the event of something going wrong,” he said.
Other strategic advisers include Blaine Cook, an original Twitter architect; Taylor Owen, director at McGill’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy; Peter Dinsdale, CEO of YMCA Canada and former CEO of the Assembly of First Nations; and Amber Mac, a Canadian tech journalist and media personality.
Ms. Mac said Gander’s dedication to verification and moderation will be key in avoiding the steady decline that other online platforms have succumbed to.
How underground brokers use their connections inside Meta to profit from hacked accounts
“In the age of social media, it’s difficult to compete against some of the forces online that pollute our online spaces. But I don’t think it’s impossible,” she said.
To ensure Gander is solely humans interacting with humans, Mr. Waldman said they’re considering working with Toronto-based digital ID verifier GoConfirm to check users’ identities upon signing up.
Since opening Gander’s early access program in April, Mr. Waldman said more than 9,000 people have signed up, giving them benefits such as username priority and the chance to participate in beta testing.
At launch, the app will be available in French, English and three Indigenous languages. Mr. Waldman said Gander’s monetization models are still being fine-tuned, but he expects subscription plans for content creators and small businesses, and ads to be a part of the company’s strategy.
However, he said if ads are included on the platform, it will be done mindfully and in a way that allows users to opt in to what they see. For example, they might choose to see ads about their favourite band’s coming shows.
“It’s all exploratory. Right now, we’re just happy to get a platform up that makes people feel better.”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content
