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Meet UpScrolled, the anti-censorship TikTok alternative (restofworld.org)

submitted 4 days ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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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.

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[–] alyaza@beehaw.org 21 points 4 days ago (4 children)

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.

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

[–] tropicflite@beehaw.org 1 points 2 days ago

Same thing with Rumble, the supposedly censor free YouTube alternative that's actually a maga cesspool.

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

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"?

[–] Sharksonaplane@mastodon.sandwich.net 4 points 4 days ago

@alyaza @jaennaet It was having problems with this within a week of launch (source: I downloaded it within a week of launch and saw/reported more than one Holocaust denialism post/commenter in that time before I closed the app). So they may be being overloaded again, but from what I heard they hadn't even implemented basic username filtering before this next wave. I didn't say anything at the time bc it was new and I wanted to believe they meant well, but it's been 6 months…

[–] stressballs@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago

A year ago this comment would have gotten deleted from nearly any subreddit. Today it's recognized as fact.