The revelation that social media is addictive is little shock to most, particularly those that watched The Social Dilemma. In actual fact, by 2023, it is estimated that the variety of social media customers will attain 257 million within the US alone. And with social community engagement rising, we’re seeing political divide and segregation play out an increasing number of by way of the social media. Lately, the political divide has prolonged past simply who we comply with, what content material we share, and what content material we “like” – there’s been a fracture within the overarching person base, and there’s starting to be a divergence in what networks individuals use based mostly on political affiliation.

And as this divide is accelerating, alt-tech social networking platforms, like MeWe, are thriving. Why? As a result of the platforms present a spot emigrate after a person’s content material is blocked or account is banned from websites like Fb for sharing hateful rhetoric and misinformation. Among the many teams migrating are some Trump supporters who have been mobilizing antivote actions and falsely claiming Joe Biden cheated within the 2020 election.

What Is MeWe?

MeWe is a social networking platform that was launched in 2012 by an American firm referred to as Sgrouples. The platform presents itself as an uncensored, ad-free, and safe different to Fb – priding itself on permitting customers to be genuine, with out the fear of their information being bought or their content material being moderated.

Though MeWe hasn’t taken a political stance, it is garnered huge consideration and downloads from extremist and conspiracy-theorist teams, equivalent to QAnon and antiquarantine supporters. It appears to draw people who’ve been banned from platforms equivalent to Twitter and Fb for participating in hate rhetoric or spreading misinformation, giving them a platform the place their content material will not be monitored.

With that being mentioned, MeWe does have customers who merely joined the platform on the promise of privateness and information safety. The platform options and format itself have been described as similar to Fb. Customers can submit and share pictures, movies, and textual content and have interaction in one-on-one or group messaging. Customers have the chance to create and be part of personal or public teams and may leverage emoji and GIFS inside posts and chats. Though MeWe is free to hitch and use, there are paid options that customers can subscribe to.

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MeWe as “Anti-Fb”

MeWe positions itself as going face to face with Fb because of its information privateness coverage. Not like Fb, MeWe does not monitor person content material, use cookies or spy ware, or promote person information – pledging to guard the personal lives of its customers. Whereas the uncensored a part of this lends itself to tolerating misinformation and extremist content material, MeWe positions this as permitting customers to be genuine.

MeWe’s Explosion in Reputation in 2020

MeWe underwent a big user-base progress in 2020. The primary contributor to MeWe’s progress was that platforms like Fb took a stronger stance towards misinformation. Huge Tech additionally largely dedicated to kicking out customers sharing hateful or violent rhetoric and eradicating extremist and conspiracy-theorist teams current on their platforms. And in live performance with Huge Tech’s stance to extra closely reasonable content material, there was additionally better vocalization from misinformation, extremist, and conspiracy teams throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, the 2020 election buildup, and because the pandemic continued.

In order these teams grew to become extra vocal and people selected to share and perpetuate misinformation or hateful messages, firms like Twitter and Fb have cracked down on addressing the content material and even eradicating customers from their platforms. From there, there was person migration onto unregulated apps like MeWe.

So, How Does MeWe Make Cash?

Social media platforms historically become profitable from promoting person information to 3rd events and from advert income, however as a result of MeWe is ad-free and does not promote person information, it makes its cash by charging customers for premium options and by way of different upsells. A few of the upsells embrace voice calling and coloured themes for $1.99/month, customized emoji packs starting from $0.99-$4.99, and extra cloud storage beginning at $3.99/month.