Web User - UK (2019-12-27)

Wikip edia co-founder

JimmyWalesisthe

manbehind WT.Social

38 27 Dec2019-7Jan 2020

Tiredoffakenews

andtargetedadvertising

on Facebookand

Twitter? DavidCrookes

checksoutanewsocial

networkthat’sfreeof

misinformation andads

Our guide to WT.Social

Whatisit?

WT.Social isanew social network

crea tedbyJimmy Wales, the co-founder

of Wikipedia.The idea is

to challengeFacebook

and Twitter by

offering an ad-free

platform with an

emphasis on

news,thatlets

users choose

whatthey’ dlike

to see and

empowers them

to discourage

the spread of

disinformation.

Howdoesitwork?

Onceyou’vesigned up,WT.Social invites

youtoselect‘subwikis’ thatinteres tyou.

News items postedbymembers of those

subwikis will then appear inyour feed,

as theywould ifyoujoine daFacebook

group.Rather than simply flagging

problem posts, however,you canedit

misleadingheadlines directly.This way,

the socialnetwork cancollectivelyweed

out fake news.

Doesn’tthatsoundlike

WikiTribune?

Yes, and there’sagoodreasonforthat.

WT.Social isanew version of the now-

defunct news-sharingserviceset

up by Walesin2017(WT standsfor

WikiTribune).Thedifferenceist hatthe

newservic eiswrapped up withinasocial

network and doesn’trely onvolunteers

(oremplo yjournalists)towrite, curate,

fact-check or add sourcesbefor eposting.

Instead, stories on the network areedited

collaboratively ,justlikethe articlesthat

appearon Wikipedia.

Is itpartofWikipedia?

Apart from having the same personat

the helm, thesites arenot connected.

They sharevalues, however,and the

range of topics WT.Socialcovers is

vast,likeWikipedia.You can see news

relatedtoeverything from politics and

technologytowrestling and gardening.

HowcanIengagewith posts?

As well as editingheadlinesand flagging

misleadingcontent,youcan comment on

every postand sharestories on other

socialnetworks andby email.This

suggests theWT.Socialteam

understands thatitwon’t replaceits rivals

but willendupcomplementing them.

Walessays he hopes thathigh levels of

engagement will helpto “conquer

Facebook” andcombatthe ever-present

issues of clickbaitand mislea ding news.

Won’tWT.Social’salgorithms

manipulate users?

UnlikeFacebook andTwitter ,which use

algorithmsto push sponsoredcontent

and popular posts, WT.Social shares

articles inatimeline,withthe la test

WT.S ociallets youchoose topics you’re

interes tedin, such as lugeand eating meat

HelpWT.Socia ldefea tFacebookby sharing

its news on other sites–such as Facebook

FAQ

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