We already hold the key to reclaim the power of our own social networks​

By reclaiming our social networks from corporate control, we can use their immense power to establish and populate the web we need and deserve – a web that is open, equitable, and centered on people. Let’s take back control of our relationships and our data and direct our collective power to fuel higher and healthier standards.

Free our social networks, redirect the data economy

For decades, private companies have controlled our social networks and related data in walled gardens. They’ve controlled innovation. They’ve controlled how value flows. This control starts with ownership of the social graph — the digital representation of our online relationships that governs how we connect, contribute, and consume. By enclosing the social graph and appropriating it as a corporate asset, companies have become de facto gatekeepers of our interactions, and they reap the vast rewards of our data.

By opening the social graph, we can begin to erase the inequities proliferated by its privatization. This work isn’t about incremental change. It’s about creating an entirely new model.

A NEW PUBLIC UTILITY​

We now have the technology to reclaim the social graph

The social graph should not be the property of companies — it should belong to everyone. It should be basic public infrastructure, like the core protocols that drive the web itself. Our open-source, unified social graph opens the path to reclaim our networks. It’s called the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP), and it’s designed to transform the social graph from corporate asset to community-governed public infrastructure.

This work opens a new frontier and represents a powerful foothold for innovation that can change the core dynamics of the web’s data economy.

AN OPEN ARCHITECTURE FOR BUILDING​

Let’s build a better web together

This new model throws the doors open for a new kind of innovation in which value flows more equitably and people are protected by higher, healthier standards. The Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP)’s open architecture lays a foundation that we can all use to build an ecosystem outside the confines of today’s walled gardens — an ecosystem of web services, apps, and marketplaces that operate with new, people-first rules. This architecture is designed to free us from decisions made by corporations that affect billions yet profit few. It opens paths for more civic and commercial engagement and impact. It seeks to lower barriers to social innovation, unlock our collective energy and wisdom, and make the most of the human desire to collaborate.

Support for Development and Migration

Tooling and incentives to spur innovation

Opening the social graph for building is only the beginning. It will take a vibrant ecosystem of apps to motivate people to migrate to an alternate web. To support the pioneers who invest their time and ideas, we’re developing essential tooling that will ultimately enable rapid testing and launching of new social apps or integration of social features into existing apps. To reward both innovation that leverages the new social graph, as well as early adopters who use these apps, we’re also developing a token. Like the core web protocols, it doesn’t take a token to use and build on DSNP. However, we do believe that a token plays the important role of incentivizing migration, and fueling an economy of innovation. We look forward to sharing details as this work evolves.

Together, we can unlock a more open and inclusive web economy

TAKE BACK your DATA, CRASH THE SURVEILLANCE ECONOMY ​

The web’s biggest apps fill vast servers with consumer data seized by surveillance and sold for profit. Putting an end to this system requires an entirely new model that shifts control of our social networks — and social data — back to people. DSNP hands individuals true, complete ownership and control of their data — permanently — as long as they use apps that have been built on top of it.

Channel the value to the people who produce it

How could we use our data if we truly owned it? What would it be worth? We’ve never had a chance to truly harness the value of our data for individual benefit. With the collective power of our shared social networks, our data can open entirely new social, intellectual, and commercial possibilities. DSNP lays this foundation for people to derive direct economic value from their data, a key step for equitable distribution of value throughout society.

Let’s build the future together

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We work to accelerate the world's transition to an open, inclusive data economy that puts citizens in control

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