Sez Us, a social app founded by Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, is trying to build a platform without anger bait.
Rage-Bait refers to posts intended to stop controversy. This could be a deliberately controversial political take, or a fully manufactured scenario designed to farm farming (for example, the satirical creator has earned 1.5 million views on Tiktok, who claims to file for divorce after her husband booed Taylor Swift).
Most existing social networking apps incentivize Rage-Bait such as Instagram, X, Tiktok, YouTube, and more. These platforms have programs for creators. These programs pay based on the number of views you get. A hard-hitting content tends to attract more attention.
SEZ US wants to break this cycle by allowing users to approve other users' posts, assess influence, insight, relevance and politeness. The hope is that users will think carefully before inciting discussions or making inflammatory statements. Instead, the idea is to encourage citizen discourse.
Changing the nature of the social internet is easier said than done. SEZUS may be more functional than products. However, that does not mean that other platforms cannot learn from these experiments in community-driven moderation.