Tech entrepreneur John Matze set out to fix this problem Divisive discourse With the recently launched app Hedgehog it has been prominently featured on several social media platforms.
“Hedgehog is a community we built for everyday Americans to find the biggest news stories of the day and have quality discussions about them,” Matze said. Fox News Digital,
Matze co-founded Parler in 2018, and the platform was popular among free speech enthusiasts until it was shut down for failing to moderate “egregious content.” Matze is preparing to sue Parler upon his exit, but wanted to ensure his next venture would not be sabotaged by the bad actors and agents of chaos who have ruined the social media experience for so many Americans.
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Hedgehog CEO John Matze seeks to fix the divisive discussion that prevails on many social media platforms through his recently launched app. (Hedgehog)
As a result, Matz focused on building a “community of highly engaged and loyal readers” who wanted to have thoughtful, respectful conversations. HedgehogWhich was quietly launched in February as the CEO of the social media giant for Apple and Android devices.
“We focus on a quality experience for people, and I think the quality experience you get on Hedgehog, and how different it is from other social media platforms, is really the key to sustainable growth and really the core of our model — productive conversations and discourse, something you don’t get anywhere else,” Matze said.
“On Hedgehog, the community is really in charge of everything,” he added. “When you’re on Hedgehog, respectful conversation earns respect. And you can use that respect to determine what’s okay on the site, you can invite friends, family, and the more respect you earn, the more prominence you’ll have.”
Hedgehog launched in February and is available on Android and Apple devices. (Hedgehog)
Hedgehog users can earn profile-page badges and status in the community by creating content that other people on the platform like. Higher status ranks, with achievements ranging from Bronze to Diamond, mean the user has more influence in terms of community moderation.
New York Post Hedgehog has recently been described as a “hybrid of Flipboard, Reddit, and X.” It pulls news from a variety of publications, from Fox News and CNN to ESPN, and offers something for everyone in the process.
The platform aims to keep out trolls, scammers, and bad people, while giving high-ranking users more power than unverified newbies. Hedgehog’s website states that everyone is welcome on the site “except the jerks,” and also states that the community can kick such people out.
The site elaborates, “Community is king at Hedgehog. Opinions are valued, but for those who don’t, members and contributors can show trolls the door.”
Matz is thrilled that he decided to prioritize serving hedgehogs in a respectable community.
“This is a huge change from other social media platforms that prioritize follower counts and meaningless statistics. On Hedgehog, respect is what gets you the most respect,” Matz said. “If you look at the landscape today, there are a lot of companies out there that are, I would say, making mistakes. And so, nobody is really doing it right.”
“A lot of these companies are very centrally powerful. So, I mean one or two small decision makers make all these big decisions for the platform itself. That affects millions of people,” he added. “And in my opinion, that’s having a negative impact on society.”
After the headaches of his previous attempt, Matz took a step back and thought carefully about his next attempt.
“That’s how we came up with the hedgehog,” he said. “You definitely have to have a place where the community is in charge and where ordinary people are on display, not just these prominent, you know, influential type of people,” he added.
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Hedgehog provides news from a variety of platforms. (Hedgehog )
Hedgehogs also have multiple layers of protection.
Users can pay $4.99 a month to become a “contributor,” allowing their content to be seen by a wider audience on the platform. Matz said this helps reduce the junk that floods other platforms, but he said Hedgehog also upgrades community members and frequent commenters who contribute daily so they can become contributors at no cost.
Hedgehog also uses artificial intelligence to filter content and flag potentially problematic posts to the moderation team, who have clear guidelines for determining what is acceptable.
“If it passes these two bills, it will come out to the public,” Matze said.
“If the public has a problem with a piece of content, they can go ahead and flag it and the community can remove any piece of content that they want to remove using the respect score, in addition to that first layer of protection,” he explained. “The final layer is that the person who makes the post determines what the conversation is going to be underneath it. And so, they can have their say there as well. So, there are a lot of protections.”
Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News Media, is a hedgehog investor.
