An image of a lighthouse can be seen in the foreground, overlaid over the copy. The Copy reads, Community-first Social Building. Channel.org. Why being charity-owned matters in the social media landscape.

An image of a superyacht's hull, anchored in water. Below it, a paragraph of copy reads: Profit is killing social media. The biggest social media companies make a staggering amount of money every year. In 2024, X, previously Twitter, made $2.5 billion, Snapchat made $5.3 billion, TikTok made $23 billion, Instagram made $66.9 billion, Facebook made $164.5 billion*. Combined, that’s $262.2 billion in a single year. Enough to buy 37,000 60m superyachts, launch 39,000 Falcon X rockets, stay in a Deluxe Suite at the Ritz for 213,000 years, or pay off all student debt in the UK 57.6 times. Still, it isn’t enough. Big Tech platforms will squeeze as much money as they can from their users, even if it means sacrificing the social in social media. *www.businessofapps.com

An image of rubber ducks racing down a river. Below it, a paragraph of copy reads: Charity led social media. In an effort to give community its meaning back, alternatives to Big Tech social platforms are rising in popularity. These efforts, like Channel.org, are backed by charities, funded by user donations, grants, and paid-for services. They don’t make ‘profit’, they grow as needed. By being accountable, not to the pockets of the board, but to the morals and ethics of their users, these platforms offer a unique chance to try something new. Social social media. In most cases, this means platforms are open-source, ad-free, and don’t steer content with algorithms to benefit certain stories or politics. They places for people to be with people, online.