UpTrust’s Unique Approach to Trust-Based Social Media
Social media today is dominated by algorithms that prioritize engagement above all else.
The social media platforms we use today aren’t just shaping conversations—they’re shaping societies, economies, and even the future of democracy itself. Platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Reddit have built systems that reward attention-grabbing content, often at the expense of truth, nuance, and meaningful discourse.
Even when these very companies attempt to do something better, their algorithms remain a runaway train fueled by outrage, virality, and tribalism— because those are the forces that drive more clicks, more reactions, and, ultimately, more ad revenue. UpTrust was built to fundamentally reshape the incentives behind online interaction, offering a new model that prioritizes trust over attention.
The Problem: Social Media's Incentive Structure is not aimed at what humans actually care about
Most existing platforms operate under what some call an “outrage to engage” model. Their algorithms create an ‘affinity funnel’, gradually guiding people toward increasingly extreme and insulated worldviews. The goal? Keep users engaged, regardless of the long-term consequences for trust, understanding, or social cohesion. Content that sparks emotional reactions—anger, shock, or amusement—tends to rise to the top, reinforcing echo chambers and making it difficult for different perspectives to engage meaningfully.
Think about your own social media feed. When you come across an opposing perspective, is it thoughtfully presented—or an exaggerated, inflammatory caricature designed to provoke a reaction?
Take American politics as an example.
Left-leaning users are more likely to encounter portrayals of Trump voters as rejecting science, driven by blind patriotism verging on supporting dictatorship or motivated by racism.
Right-leaning users see the same tactic in reverse—depictions of liberals as prioritizing feelings over upholding basic laws, supporting terrorists, and motivated by blind adherence to ‘woke’ status signaling.
The irony? As both sides are fed outrage-fueled caricatures of each other, they get driven deeper into the stereotype the other side expects. This deepens division, fosters misunderstanding, and pushes people further away from the principles they might otherwise stand for. While difficult to confront, you may find that you have personally become more polarized through these mechanisms.
UpTrust recognizes that this isn’t just a problem of misinformation or bad actors—it’s a structural issue. (Which then is sometimes exploited by misinformation and bad actors). It’s the result of millions of small decisions made over decades, often by innocent engineers just trying to do their job. It’s reinforced by financial interests, like teacher pension funds invested in Facebook stock. And it’s sustained by media outlets competing for attention in the same system of outrage-driven engagement.
And this radiates throughout all of society. Suddenly, we have reputable senators and business folk making wild accusations to get attention—“If candidate X wins, that’s the end of democracy!” News sources and journalists amplify outrageous claims to keep advertisers from going to social media, so they’re indirectly driven by the same unconscious self-reinforcing cycle.
And maybe some of us prefer it that way. Some of us want to be among people who share our worldview and have no desire to bridge the gap. That’s okay. But for those of us who are ready and willing to narrow the ever-widening divide, we invite you to be part of the solution.
UpTrust’s Solution: A Trust-Based Algorithm
UpTrust is pioneering a new approach to online interaction by building a social platform where trust, rather than engagement, is the driving force behind content visibility. Here’s how it works:
UpTrusters Drive Their Own Algorithm
On UpTrust, your feed is shaped by who you trust—and in which domains. You might value someone’s insights on economics but not their take on climate policy, and the platform adjusts your feed accordingly.
Just like trust in real life, your UpTrust experience evolves over time. Every uptrust or downtrust you indicate refines what you see, adapting to reflect your changing views and values. This personalized system puts you in control, allowing you to shape your own feed rather than letting an algorithm exploit your attention.
The result? Instead of having your attention harnessed and manipulated for the sake of consumption, you control why content appears in your feed.
Bridging Perspectives and Encouraging Nuance
UpTrust is designed to provide exposure to alternate viewpoints in a way that fosters understanding rather than polarization. In short, you’re going to like what you see from “the other side,” and you’ll be glad you saw it. It’ll be the most relevant and trusted to you, based on your pattern of up and downtrusting. And likewise, instead of “the other side” getting the hottest takes from your side, they’ll get the deepest takes—ideas that come across as reasonable.
Over time, the UpTrust algorithm rewards synthesizing viewpoints, as people that bridge worlds or add more nuance are likely to find themselves independently promoted on other UpTruster’s feeds.
Creators Can Be Their Full Selves
On most social media platforms, creators feel pressured to stick to narrow niches that guarantee engagement. UpTrust allows creators to share a broader range of ideas without being penalized by the algorithm. Their content is surfaced based on trust—not just raw attention metrics.
Instead of encouraging shallow engagement, UpTrust supports creators in sharing their full range of perspectives—whether those ideas fit a specific niche or not. And for those who value epistemological humility, it helps avoid the ‘halo effect’—where, for no good reason, we start caring about Ben Affleck’s opinions on the science behind mRNA vaccines just because we liked his movies.
Reputation is Earned and Context-Specific
Trust isn’t one-size-fits-all or based on consensus—it’s personal and domain-specific. You might value someone’s expertise on artificial intelligence but not their opinions on global politics. UpTrust reflects this nuance by tracking trustworthiness across different domains, ensuring that credibility is earned—not assumed. This system is designed to evolve dynamically over time, reflecting shifts in expertise, reliability, and credibility across platform contributors.
For example, imagine joining a conversation about AI safety. Today, getting attention requires a provocative headline. But on UpTrust, an endorsement or two from a well-respected researchers could elevate your work to those who trust those experts—no clickbait required.
Everything is a bet, and there’s downside risk
If you post “top breaking news” on X that gets a ton of engagement but turns out to be false, what happens? Basically, nothing. You get the engagement, maybe face some backlash, but you also gain new followers and boost your reach. The platform wins with more clicks, the advertisers sell more products, and civilization? It’s a little worse off. Where’s the recourse for that?
On UpTrust, accountability works differently. Downtrusting is a core part of the system—it’s bottom-up, not imposed from above. Instead of relying on rigid rules about what’s allowed, trusted voices can downtrust content, making it far less likely to show up in other people’s feeds.
The result? UpTrust is a self-regulating system where misinformation naturally loses visibility. But it also works the other way: if you share a well-presented fringe theory and a few highly trusted sources decide it’s trustable, it can rise quickly—without needing to ‘go viral’ on outrage clicks.
Shifting the Incentive Structure of Social Media
UpTrust is not just changing what gets surfaced in feeds; it’s reimagining how online conversations function altogether. By rewarding trustworthy content and prioritizing meaningful discourse over engagement bait, the platform aims to create an ecosystem where participants feel incentivized to contribute their best thinking. The long-term vision isn’t just a better social network—it’s an entire restructuring of the internet’s incentive system to align with collective wisdom rather than a divisive spectacle.
A Future of More Meaningful Conversations
UpTrust is proving that a social network doesn’t have to thrive on outrage and manipulation to succeed. The challenge isn’t just to build a new platform—it’s to shift the entire incentive structure that governs how we interact online.
Through trust-based algorithms, bridging mechanisms, and a commitment to nuance, UpTrust is pioneering a model that rewards truthiness and punishes defection, making better conversations possible.
As UpTrust continues to develop, the goal is not just to create an alternative to today’s dominant platforms but to fundamentally change how we think about social media’s role in society. A future where online discourse is rooted in trust rather than tribalism is not just possible—it’s necessary.