Five Canadian tech entrepreneurs are hoping that what’s good for the goose is good for Gander, the name of a new social media platform they are developing specifically for Canadian users.
Ben Waldman, founder and CEO, enlisted the help of four co-founders to develop Gander, a social media app for Canadians to share stories freely without facing divisive content, disinformation, and trolls on the internet.
“Just because Canada doesn’t have a social media platform, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t,” Waldman told BNN Bloomberg in a Tuesday interview. “I think this is the time we can do it.”
The social media site will feature prompts to write posts and upload videos enabling users to tailor their feed to the types of content they enjoy. Users will then be able to toggle their content to large, public domains or strictly to a Canada-only network should they choose.
“One of the big focuses for us is bringing the social back to social media,” said Waldman. “I love creators. I love, like many people, to flip through TikToks and just consume content and on other platforms, but I think there’s a certain overwhelming percentage of people that aren’t using social media to socialize anymore.”
The app is expected to launch in October as an alternative to U.S. tech companies Meta and X, formerly Twitter. Consumers will be able to take a gander through the app and view their friends’ stories and content they value rather than what an algorithm provides. The goal is to encourage people to interact with each other more frequently.
“The idea is to start these small pods of communities across Canada where those people will be able to invite their friends or invite their colleagues, so that ultimately, we’re creating this network of people again, that all know each other,” said Waldman.
He says users on the app will be verified to ensure they are human, not a bot, and must be of age to use it. They will have the right to post content based off the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as long as it is not considered hate speech. Explicit content will be labeled to users so they can decide whether they want to engage. There will also be tools to identify disinformation and bias in articles.
“We want to integrate these kinds of features in to start bringing Canadians and people generally back together again, because we used to be able to have conversations across the table, even if they were contentious, without being so divided with so much risk to our democracy,” said Waldman.
He said users will be able to consume content the way they want whether it features a hockey team, band or posts from their mother, for example. It will be catered to their preference as well, allowing them to enjoy videos more or written content if they choose.
“The feed becomes under your control, and you get to consume it the way you want to,” said Waldman. “Do you like to consume text content? Kind of like Twitter? Go for it. That’s if that’s your jam. Do it. If your preference is to swipe videos, then choose to do that, all while making sure that what you want to see is in front of you based on your decisions, not ours.”
