BuzzFeed plans on launching a new social platform “built specifically to spread joy and enable playful creative expression.” In a blog post published on Tuesday, BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti highlights the “growing discontent” with platforms using AI-driven algorithms to keep users glued to their screens, adding that BuzzFeed’s social network would use AI to “give users agency” rather than take it away.
BuzzFeed says the platform is “designed as an oasis from algorithm-driven doomscrolling” and will “introduce quirky, weird, and joyful experiences to make the internet fun again.”
Peretti’s blog post goes into more detail about why BuzzFeed is creating a social media platform. He outlines how companies like Meta and TikTok prioritize the judgment of AI algorithms rather than the thoughts of their employees, leading to the proliferation of content that “elicits the most compulsive and predictable response from the human brain.”
Peretti describes this kind of content as something he calls “SNARF,” which stands for Stakes, Novelty, Anger, Retention, and Fear (emphasis Peretti’s):
Content creators exaggerate stakes to make their content urgent and existential. They manufacture novelty and spin their content as unprecedented and unique. They manipulate anger to drive engagement via outrage. They hack retention by withholding information and promising a payoff at the end of a video. And they provoke fear to make people focus with urgency on their content.
BuzzFeed, which also owns HuffPost and Tasty, plans to tackle the addictive social media environment by making “content that gives you a little buzz, helps you relax, have a good time, and connect with your friends,” while also launching this new social media platform of its own.
“We’re building an alternative,” Peretti said. “The future of social media should be designed for creativity and connection, not addiction. This isn’t about making BuzzFeed better, it’s about reimagining what the internet can be. It’s time to bring back the internet we love, where everyone can find their people and unleash their creativity.”
