Full Transcript for What Makes UpScrolled Different? with Issam Hijazi

media platform. And the reason for starting a social media platform was because I've seen how existing social media platforms been shadow banning, oppressing, suppressing, different voices across the world simply for trying to tell the truth. They claim to be, you know, platforms that support freedom of speech, but when it comes to certain content, for example pro-Palestinian content, they have been always censoring that content. And I've seen that firsthand. speaker-1: Your perspective changed a lot after Oc October seventh. You saw shadow banning, ⁓ people being censored on major platforms. But was there a specific moment when you thought, Okay, I'm starting my own platform? Or it was more of a gradual profile? speaker-0: ⁓ the moment was ⁓ literally I was ⁓ speaking with with a friend. I was in Sydney back then, and I was telling him about all these ⁓ things that those social media platforms are doing or imposing ⁓ in in censoring content that's related to pro-Palestinian content. And he asked me, Why don't you start your own social media platforms and you know let people speak freely on that? And and and that really triggered me, and I was okay, maybe I'm at a point in life where I need to make more conscious ⁓ I would say decisions and that was one of them. It wasn't like I always dreamt of starting a social media platform or there was a lack of social media platforms ⁓ in the world. There's plenty of them out there obviously, but all of them have been complicit one way or another in suppressing the Palestinians ⁓ voices. Given my background in data analytics in general and technology in general, I thought maybe I I could dedicate the experience that I had in building a platform that's really fair and just for everyone to use to express themselves, regardless if this about a Palestine or something else, a platform that's really ⁓ give equal opportunity to everyone. speaker-1: So some people, some critics argue that Up Scroll's political identity might be problematic, let's say. How do you respond to this criticism? We speaker-0: Don't brand UpScroll as a political platform, but for some reason, because of my origin being Palestinians, it is seen as such by certain organizations or certain individuals. I think that's really their problem. ⁓ we're not here trying to promote ⁓ an agenda or do a propaganda like other platforms. We're really here for providing users a space where they can express themselves without being f without the fear of of being shadow banned or being ⁓ censored or selectively censored because of their background or because of the topics that they talk about. speaker-1: First glance, App Scroll looks like many other social media apps, so users can post videos and photos, they can comment, but it's fundamentally different. And I was wondering what makes App Scroll distinct from other platforms, not just in terms of features, but in terms of user experience. speaker-0: As a platform, as a company, the the main differentiator

as of today is the principles that the company stands on really. And those principles is providing a fair experience for all of our users, transparent one when it comes to algorithms which we currently didn't use any, and then providing them ⁓ with the tools that enables them to express themselves. Like you mentioned. On Upscroll, you'll be able to do things that you are able to do on other platforms, whether that's posting a video or you know, microblogging or posting ⁓ images and so on, following people, et cetera. So we wanted to provide a familiar experience to our users. So when they migrate from the other platforms, they come to Upscroll, they see the tools and the experience that they're used to. Now moving forward, we'll be providing different features that distinguish Upscroll in certain areas. But as of today, we're focused on providing that similar experience that they do have. Another platform so they feel home when they come to ObScroll. But again, I don't think it's it's only about technology. What differentiates us again is is the principles that we stand on, and that is to provide a fair platform to fight for the users. And most important more importantly is not to make our users the product. Because every other platform, the users are the product, not the other way around. In our platform, we prioritized users' well-being. We don't have or design any addiction loop. holes ⁓ within the app so they can continue and do what what they call doom scrolling. We actually want users to come to the platform, see what they want to see, again according to what they want, not because we want to suggest content to them and then just log off and just do other things. Go touch the grass. And I think that's fundamentally different from every other social media platform because other platforms want to maximize your screen time. They want you to stay on the platform at any cost. In our case, that's not really ⁓ how we're building the product. We're building the product where we pretri prioritized our users over anything else. speaker-1: October seventh was let's say the moment when the world realized ⁓ Palestinian voices are being ⁓ censored by the algorithm. But did you notice it before October seventh? speaker-0: I have, I have. And not only me. ⁓ there have been many instances throughout the social media history, which is about twenty years really, ⁓ not more than that. Where in certain incidents where there's some event happening in the world, we we see ⁓ certain content getting suppressed. And in many cases it was anything that is really pro-Palestinian. And in and some of the platforms, ⁓ there have been actual researches where the researcher have used content that's related to Palestine. or written in Arabic, for example, and noticed how this platform deliberately ⁓ you know, removed some of that content and in some cases completely ban the users from being on that platform. On the other hand, on the same experiment, they've been using some

other languages without really mentioning them and inciting violence and inciting things in that specific language. And the content on those platforms did not really get removed. speaker-1: One of Upschool's stated goals is that of a space where voices, Palestinian voices, can freely express themselves. However, there are some watchdog organizations that have reported some anti-Semitic comments, including conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denials. So how do you handle content moderation in these cases when it comes to hate speech? speaker-0: We do have a public ⁓ community guidelines which we adhere to and the the community guidelines strictly prohibits anything that's hate speech, inciting violence, or anything that is considered illegal. And we enforce this ⁓ within Upscold, within within our content moderation team and we try to fight. There's a lot of bad actors out there that really want to do damage to Upscold and and and we're putting the mechanisms ⁓ behind the scenes just to counter that. speaker-1: Earlier this year, AppScroll experienced an explosive growth. So from just a hundred and fifty thousand users, they became two million and a half in just a week. At that point, you were the company's only employee. What was this growth like for you? speaker-0: It was surreal. It wasn't really anticipated. But that's a great problem to have. As you mentioned, I was pretty much one man company helping with all things related to content moderation, to support, to building the actual platform, a front end, back end support and and everything in between. But that's a good problem to have, the growth itself. But that means really we needed to rapidly build up a team to help ⁓ you know, sustaining the platform from technical perspective, in in terms of stability, in terms of content moderation. But that's great. The two point five million that came within one week, like I mentioned, wasn't really anticipated for us. And that means certain problem could surface ⁓ back then. ⁓ but we have all the measures now in place ⁓ to counter anything that could damage really the platform and continue to provide really enjoyable experience for our users. speaker-1: You started up Scroll the just ⁓ one year ago. It was launched ⁓ in summer twenty twenty-five. What are your takeaways? People speaker-0: People really want something that is different. People really have the will to change. And that has been proven when they have, you know, migrated from all these other platforms, which they've been using for years, into a relatively new platform which does not provide all the amazing features that they are used to. That means that they compromise and they're making that decision consciously because they understand ⁓ they want to be with ethical platforms that really respect their choices, that really respects their right. To speak up without being suppressed. And that's basically my biggest learning. And that can be applied really in everything, not only in social media platforms, that there is an awakening globally that's happening, which is driving people to change their behaviors towards their choices for picking up or buying products or selecting services or using services. Thank you, Francesca. speaker-1: Thank you so much, Hisam.