Social media is breaking free from the shackles of Big Tech

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Some people wake up and don’t know where they left their phone the night before. There are also those who instinctively check their social media accounts before their eyes are even opened. For many, this means scrolling through notifications on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok, and starting the day with a digital inventory before they even have time to wake up.

These days, users have even found new ways to interact with social media beyond traditional use cases. For example, some have moved away from traditional search engines like Google and turned to social media platforms that help them complete their daily tasks. With the rise of influencers, users are constantly bombarded with information, product recommendations and sponsored content that shape decisions and routines.

From personal preferences and browsing habits to locations, everything users share or interact with has become a data point for companies to track, analyze, and monetize. During Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, her team spent more than $11 million promoting ads on Instagram and Facebook to target younger audiences.

Big Tech players even have the power to filter the content users see. For example, in July, Facebook and Google were criticized for censoring President Trump’s assassination attempt. They may remove content based on algorithms or external pressure; and users are often left unaware of the criteria used to determine which posts are removed and which are promoted.

Decentralization is key

To counter these insidious problems, more and more users are turning to decentralized solutions that inherently resist censorship and unfair control.

Decentralized social networks give users full ownership over their content by eliminating the middleman. Additionally, because decentralized social media is not controlled by a single organization, data is not stored in a central location, which is often susceptible to hacking or surveillance. The lack of a central authority also means that no one can censor user-generated content.

Integrating social media principles with blockchain technology offers a web3 approach to creating, managing and interacting with online social networks.

Lens Protocol, for example, is a decentralized Layer 2 infrastructure designed for scalable social spaces, allowing users to own their content and connections. Traditional web2 platforms like X, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram leverage control over data by relying on centralized social graphs to create and manage user connections. In contrast, the Lens Protocol aims to centralize this power structure by giving individuals ownership over their data and content.

Lens Protocol allows users to create, share and interact with content without relying on central authorities. It does this by allowing users to own their profiles, giving them the freedom to move their data between platforms.

Avara, developers of Lens, Aave, and Family, recently closed a $31 million funding round. The tour was led by Lightspeed Faction and participants included Alchemy, Avail, Circle, Consensys, DFG, Superscrypt, Re7 and Wintermute Ventures. The funding will be used to scale the network infrastructure ahead of the launch of the mainnet next year.

While we can’t say goodbye to web2 social media just yet, SocialFi offers users a new perspective on how decentralized management can provide a more value-driven experience. This change paves the way for a future where users are compensated for their time, creativity and influence, and where their data belongs to them, not to centralized companies. SocialFi advocates for a more level playing field where value is shared more fairly among contributors.