In an effort to combat the spread of fake news via social media, Wikipedia founder and Internet Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Wales has quietly launched WT:Social, a social networking site that allows users to share links to articles on a wide range of topics and discuss them in a Facebook-style news feed. Similar to Wikipedia, it relies on donations from users in order to operate ad-free.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Wales acknowledged that there is no guarantee the platform will succeed. Wales attempted something similar in 2017 with the crowd-funded launch of Wikitribune, which ultimately failed to attract a sustainable audience.
“This is a radical, crazy experiment of mine,” he said. “I’m happy to say I don’t know all the answers.”
