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.