416. Bringing Free Speech to Social Media (recorded in 2022 pre-Elon Twitter)

Future Squared with Steve Glaveski

My guest today is Bill Ottman, he’s the co-creator and CEO of Minds - an alternative social media platform based on the blockchain that actively rewards users for their contributions, supports freedom of expression, and unlike many competing platforms, is not incentivized to polarize people for the sake of driving higher engagement. The platform has several million users and is growing fast on the back of a $10 million capital injection in 2021, and growing dissatisfaction with traditional social media platforms.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• The myriad ways social media is broken
• What makes minds different
• Freedom of speech and freedom of expression
• How censorship and deplatforming can backfire
• Why closed source systems are better for humanity
• How Minds rewards users for their attention and contributions
• How Minds business model differs from Twitter’s
• The challenge of overcoming the network effects advantage other platforms have
• The inevitability of interoperable social media platforms

Show Notes:

1. Minds: www.minds.com
2. Bill on Minds: https://www.minds.com/ottman
3. The censorship effect study: https://cdn-assets.minds.com/The_Censorship_Effect.pdf

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