We have seen a very interesting past few weeks in the Web2 social media space. Elon Musk has officially taken over twitter, looking to improve the platform. Meta have announced that Instagram will be integrating NFTs into their product. And the Kanye West saga continues. On the free speech front, it looks like both the Left and Right are increasingly unhappy, with some 20,000 users leaving twitter (likely from the Left), and some right-wingers critisising the censorship of West. Technologically, Meta are trying to integrate elements of blockchain technology into their product -- but for the wrong reasons, in my opinion.
All of this makes clear that people are increasingly unhappy with the social media. This of course goes back to the root problem: the market monopolised, so there is no choice. This is a separate topic altogether. What I would like to focus on is a simple question: why might this general discontent cause user migration from Web2 social media platforms, to network like BBS?
1. Censorship Policy
This is quite a simple reason, and is not technological in nature. It could well be that sooner or later, people will look for platforms that simply have a more liberal free speech policy (by liberal, I mean more lenient, not left-wing). Regardless of the database technology, a large percentage of developers of Web3 UIs are controlled free speech absolutists. I say that in the most positive sense. Ukraineuncensored.com is a great case in point demonstrating that the BBS.market operators believe in free speech. Indeed, the "Web3" platform Minds (although a bit of a fake) attracted millions of users, simply because they had a free speech policy.
Thus, it is possible that in the short term BBS.market will be to Reddit what Rumble is to YouTube.
Note that I refer to BBS.market, not BBS. The censorship policy of BBS is the EOS consensus algorithm, and no more. It is very difficult to censor content from the EOS blockchain, where all BBS posts are stored. You can browse the blockchain here, or run an EOS node if that site is not good enough for you.
2. Choice
As BBS uses a public database, we may see many different UIs being developed in the next few years. The introduction of a software development kit will make it possible to build a UI without even writing a single line of code. For those looking for alternatives to proprietary social media platforms, they could even develop their own and propose it to any BBS operator. And if no one accepts, they can become an operator -- because everything is public.
Ultimately, most people would rather use a network where they can choose their censor, privacy policy, recommendation algorithm, payment model, and more. So, the expansion of different UIs on the BBS Network could attract users.
3. Security
A simple reason: there will always be a backup of your data on the blockchain. No one party controls your posts, which you worked hard to write. Which brings us to our next point.
4. Monetary Reward
This is one of the most important factors, particularly for online community leaders. Migrating to BBS from somewhere like Reddit can generate enormous revenue streams. Businesses could earn money every time their customers post a customer support question. Online community leaders could earn for just continuing what they are doing, but somewhere else.
BBS is the only social media platform that -- to my knowledge -- distributes ad revenue to Network users.
Because everyone is a Network user. There is not one party or central authority. By nature, BBS rewards Network users -- not by a voluntary charitable endeavor.
Let me know that you think,
Yoav