Introduction



From Crossfit Inc. suspending their Facebook and Instagram accounts due to privacy and censorship concerns, to Twitter banning the Krassensteins, Facebook and Twitter have been heavily criticized for invading the privacy of their users as well as censoring people with differing political opinions. As a result, alternatives have been built to fill this untapped need in the social media market. Listed below, are some of the alternative social media sites that have been formed as a result.

1. 1. Minds.com

Founded by Bill Ottman on February 11th ,2011, with the goal of creating a free, open-source version of Facebook that has no advertisers on the site, which means there is no outside influence deciding what minds can and cannot have on the platform. There are roughly 1 million users on the site, and it is monetized with Ethereum and it pays users with the Minds token.





You can either pay for minds tokens or you can earn them by being active on the site and subscribing to other users. You can use these tokens to boost your own content or to donate to your favorite person on Minds.





Minds has recently created a jury system to ensure fairness on the platform. If the user reports content or a channel the Minds staff can choose to accept or reject the report. If the report is accepted, the user can submit an appeal and 12 random Minds users, who do not subscribe to the channel/user, will vote to overturn or keep the ruling in place.





They generate income via the Minds + account. The benefits of this account include the following: a verified channel, exclusive Minds content, a Minds+ badge and the ability to hide boosted content from your feed. They also earn revenue by charging users 1 mind token for 1000 views of content.





Link to the Android and IOS app: https://www.minds.com/mobile

2. 2. Belacam.com

This is an alternative to Instagram that was created by 2 people at the University of Virginia. Much like Instagram, you can like, comment and follow other users and their photos. What differentiates Belacam from Instagram is that you are paid Bela, a cryptocurrency, whenever someone likes your picture on the site or when you refer others to join Belacam. You can then either withdraw or “stake” your Bela so you can earn even more.





You can reach the premium account status once you obtain an account balance of 30,000 Bela. The benefits of a premium account include the following: the premium gold star, zero withdrawal fees, a customizable referral link, and your posts will rank twice as high on the explore page.





This app can be found on the Google Play Store.









3. 3. Uptrennd





Uptrennd is like Reddit, except that the only topic allowed on the site is cryptocurrency, though more topics will be allowed over time. This platform does not collect your information and users earn 80% of the ad revenue. The site does not delete posts or censor and they do not sell information to advertisers.





You can earn points on the site by sharing content and people liking or “upvoting” your content. Points can be used to either level-up, purchase advertising on the sidebar, or exchanging points for cash.





There is currently no mobile app for this social media site right now.





4. 4. Gab.AI

This was launched by Andrew Torba on August 15th, 2016, priding itself as the free speech alternative to Facebook and Twitter. Gab.AI is a crossbreed of these platforms and aims to be a direct alternative to Twitter. There are no advertisers on the site and there are 850,000 users on the site as of December 2018. You can join groups, which are like the groups on Facebook, except they can only be created by premium users.





Since Gab is advertiser-free, the site makes money via their premium account, which has advanced features, such as being verified, being able to create lists and groups, and the ability to save posts, more premium features will be coming soon.





5. Canund: The Underground Social Network





This Saskatchewan social media site aims to be the Underground Railroad for Free Speech. They are so dedicated to free speech, that they do not have a reporting system, so if users have a problem with one’s content, he/she can only block them





Users can earn points based on their involvement on the site, which can be redeemed for ad space on the site. Ads can be targeted to people in different countries, different sexes, and their relationship status. You can even decide if your ad goes on the user’s feed or on the sidebar. There are almost 3000 users on the site as of May 15th, 2019 and that number is expected to increase as people are looking for alternatives to Facebook and Twitter.





Unlike most of our previous entries, Minds make money with advertisers and with pro-packs. The price of the pro-packs





The site has a mobile app on Android and the IOS app is still a work in progress.









6. 6. Utterz





Utterz was once a social media site that encouraged people to speak each other, Registered users would call into the site and leave a message on your profile page. That site was later shut down and was replaced by the free speech platform now known as Utterz.com





Utterz is like Canund except it is much more polished. Utterz was once the name of an alternative social media site for musicians that later went out of business. The site has roughly 200 users and much like the other entries on this piece, they do not sell user data and they do not censor speech. The site makes money via pro packages ranging from $1 a year to $29.99 per year, and through advertising.





The site does not have an app on IOS and Android currently.





Conclusion

All in all, these social media sites have the potential to pull away from the audience of Facebook and Twitter. All these sites respect the privacy of their users and do not sell user data to advertisers; some of them even give users a percentage of the ad revenue they do receive. Moving from Facebook and Twitter to these alternatives will allow users to earn some money as well as expose themselves to new perspectives.









Works Cited





Dale, Brady. “Don't Tell Mom, But This Social Network Encourages Talking to Strangers.” Observer, Observer, 27 Feb. 2018, observer.com/2017/03/anchor-utterz-social-media-audio-sxsw/.



