Non-profit
FreeFollow has no owners to please.
FreeFollow is 100% user-supported.
End-to-end encrypted
We can't abuse what we can't see.
Over the past twenty years we’ve given social media companies every chance to be good citizens and good stewards of our data, and every time we’ve been let down. With a track record of lying to the public and evading both regulation and responsibility, while knowingly harming children on an industrial scale, the evidence suggests that for-profit enterprises simply cannot be trusted with our data, our discourse, and our attention.
Due to this lack of trust, millions of people have resorted to sharing content with friends and family via group texts, but for many of us, this is a frustrating step back. There’s no good reason why we shouldn’t be able to communicate with our friends, families, and broader social groups without the limitations of group texts or having to subject ourselves to the whims, transgressions, and depredations of social media companies.
In the twentieth century it was understood that communications platforms such as the telephone network and TV—despite being constructed by private enterprises—were too important to be entrusted entirely to private control. But that wisdom has been lost in the internet era. And with social media companies possessing unlimited wealth with which to influence governments, and a clear willingness to do so, we don’t expect this to change.
This leaves one option: a non-profit tech company dedicated to enabling people to share their lives and ideas without exploitation or manipulation. By eliminating owners and their overriding interests, a non-profit platform is free to serve the interests of its users exclusively.
We’re calling it FreeFollow.
Who is this for?
Individuals: Share updates from your life with family and friends, privately, with a better experience than group texts.
Authors: Publish your content on a simple, powerful platform with zero ads and no pressure on your readers to create an account.
Governments: Keep your constituents informed without asking them to use objectionable platforms.
Social groups: Host discussions among people sharing your interests, privately or publicly.
Who can use FreeFollow?
Everyone can read content in public spaces without signing up, like Wikipedia.
Free users can read and participate in public or private spaces, forever, without paying a dime.
Paying users can host public or private spaces.
When can I start using this?
FreeFollow is currently in private beta. When we enter public beta, users will be activated from the waitlist in the order in which they signed up.
When will there be mobile apps?
Mobile apps are currently in development. Join the waitlist to be notified when they’re available.
What’s the pricing model?
FreeFollow is just a special form of web hosting: people and organizations pay to host spaces. So if you're not hosting a space, you don't have to pay. A user who only reads content and writes replies to other peoples' posts? Never has to pay. A user who only posts to spaces that others are hosting? Never has to pay. To drive this home: FreeFollow is not "pay-to-post"; it's pay-to-host.
Some examples may help make this clear:
John, a paying user, creates a private space to share photos and videos of his daughter, and invites his wife to the space as an author who can create posts. They then each invite their families and close friends to the space as commenters who can read and comment on posts. Only John and Erin are able to post in the space; only their invited friends and family can see and comment on posts; and only John’s account is charged for hosting the space. It's totally free for everyone else.
John creates a private space for his neighborhood association and invites about 50 of his neighbors, for whom participation is free. He adds his neighbors Jeff and Mark as co-owners of the group. Since John is already a paying user and has plenty of storage in his tier, there’s no additional expense for him. Later, Jeff creates an organization account for the neighborhood association, which then takes over hosting the space from John.
Dan creates a public space for his Cajun Cuisine food truck and posts his menu and location every day. Everyone on the web can read it for free.
Who can view my private content?
Only people you explicitly invite to a private space. You can revoke their access at any time.
How much does it cost?
We're aiming for $5/mo for 10GB of storage.
What counts against my storage?
Only content posted to spaces you're hosting.
Is my data trapped forever inside this platform?
No, you can download an archive of your data at any time.
How good is your security design?
You can learn more about this in How it Works.