Opinion: It’s time to flip the script on social media platforms
Opinion piece by Zoe Kalar, the founder and CEO of WeAre8
Musicians have always been the ones to speak truth to power. To challenge the status quo. To start the rebellion. They have always been the ones brave enough to stand up and say: “Stop. You cannot control my voice. You cannot control me”.
But when it comes to social media platforms, that power of freedom is just an illusion. The truth is: they just controlled us. They divided us. They strangled the reach of our voices through their algorithms, and made us work for them for free.
This always amazes me with much loved pop icon Taylor Swift, who has worked to build her instagram audience to 280 million followers, and yet, often only around 1.5% of her audience tap the like button on her posts because her reach is being controlled, meanwhile she has to turn off comments because of the hate she receives.
And if the biggest pop icon of our time is being controlled by Meta’s algorithms, what hope does any other artist and musician have?
The reality is that if Swift could actually reach her audience with a post, and 280 million people actually saw it, she would be one of the biggest media channels in the world. And when hateful comments are eliminated, she could turn on comments and have personal engagement from real people. And when she can link people back to her website directly from posts, she will send hundreds of millions of people back to her own website.
This is possible! This is the new world of social media that we have built at WeAre8. This is true creative and economic freedom. We unlock the algorithms so people’s followers actually see them, we have built AI to eliminate abusive comments, we encourage people to link from the platform back to artists’ websites. In the world of 8, Swift won’t just be singing half time at the Super Bowl, maybe she will be buying the rights to host the superbowl on Taylorswift.com.
Today, it feels like she is working for Mark Zuckerberg. And so are 2 billion other people. But the future at 8 brings real transformation and hope. When you unlock the algorithms, when you elevate the voices of artists, when you eliminate the controls and share the economics, everything changes.
Musicians can get discovered, they can be elevated and reach their audiences. They can get much bigger brand deals and they can release music independently. And most importantly, they can create the music they want to bring to the world – not just create sounds that they think an algorithm would like. In the world of 8, every artist wins.
We ‘the people’ are the largest unpaid workforce in human history. So many artists are controlled by Meta algorithms. Because let’s be honest, are we really imagining anymore? Or are we just optimising?
We live in a world where your song, your art, your wild idea about space-funk cello solos can’t even reach your own damn audience unless it performs well on the algorithm. The art of rebellion, the beauty of raw expression now has to come with captions like “Wait for it…” and “This will blow your mind 🤯.” Otherwise? It dies.
And if John Lennon was around now, would Imagine even break through the noise? Would he be told by some TikTok growth hacker to add a dance move and remix it with Doja Cat to make it trend? Would the song that once gave us chills… get five seconds of attention before someone swipes up to watch a dog play the piano?
We’ve been told that data is the new oil. But let’s be clear: your creativity, your joy, your mental health, that’s what they’re drilling for. You post, they profit. You create, they control.
It’s no accident that most platforms don’t let your message reach your people unless you pay. They designed it this way. The people with the power to inspire, to challenge, to change the world are throttled unless they play the game at the casino…Zuck’s casino.
This is the moment we flip the script. This is the moment we reclaim our value. And this is the moment that we rediscover our infinite value in the world.
Musicians will rise and speak truth to power again in a way that the world has never seen. Because this time, 8 is here to supercharge their voices, and the 8 technology has been built to elevate, share, and give control to artists – and all people. And this new world is so much more entertaining than the social feeds of the past.
Meta actually means ‘is dead’ in Hebrew. I am surprised Zuck didn’t do a quick Google search of that before he renamed a company that now has a market cap of 1.7 Trillion dollars. But like every David and Goliath story that has come before, Meta has an achilles heel. And that is their obsession with power, control and greed: no matter what the cost to people and society.
The winners in the new world of 8? Well, everyone: every artist, every musician, every community, charity, publisher, sports team, brand and person. Everyone standing together and breaking free. Because I speak on behalf of all the artists I know, we’ve had enough of the control, the trolls and of working for you for free.
As the band Queen said: “I want to break free”. And now is the time to do it.
Zoe Kalar is the founder and CEO of the social media platform WeAre8.
Download the WeAre8 app today and be a part of the future of social media.