Tech leaders ready launch of Canadian social-media platform Gander to buck U.S. dominance

[Westingham]

For those in search of a social media platform that isn't a dumpster fire and/or owned by techbro billionaires, Gander Social is a Canadian alternative built on the AT Protocol (Bluesky) built on solely Canadian infrastructure. US laws, lawmakers, and presidents won't be able to touch it.

 

Quote

 A new social-media platform built by Canadians, for Canadians, and operated in Canada, will publicly launch in October with support from some of the most prominent names in the Canadian innovation sector.

 

[...]

 

Gander will feature written posts and videos, giving users the choice to tailor their feed to the types of content they most enjoy. Just like the social-media platform Bluesky, Gander is built on AT Protocol, which means it’s part of an open, decentralized network and not controlled by a billionaire.

To ensure data sovereignty for Canadian users, Mr. Waldman said Gander is working with Canadian cloud-service provider ThinkOn to build a parallel network of servers entirely in Canada.

Therefore, users will have the option to toggle between having their posts appear on the larger, open network or the Canada-only network. This will also enable Gander on the domestic network to control its own privacy and moderation rules, which will adhere to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

 

I'm signed up for the beta. I'm hoping this becomes a really viable alternative to what currently exists. The majority of my social media use right now is Bluesky - they're definitely not as bad as Twitter but they are US-owned and bound to US law and part of the US billionaire techbro ecosystem.

 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/article-tech-leaders-ready-launch-of-canadian-social-media-platform-gander-to/

[Holmes108]

What are we expecting to actually be different about this one though? Is there any reason to believe it won't just become either an overly moderated or under moderated craphole? (genuine question!)

[Why_Me]

25 minutes ago, Westingham said:

For those in search of a social media platform that isn't a dumpster fire and/or owned by techbro billionaires, Gander Social is a Canadian alternative built on the AT Protocol (Bluesky) built on solely Canadian infrastructure. US laws, lawmakers, and presidents won't be able to touch it.

 

 

I'm signed up for the beta. I'm hoping this becomes a really viable alternative to what currently exists. The majority of my social media use right now is Bluesky - they're definitely not as bad as Twitter but they are US-owned and bound to US law and part of the US billionaire techbro ecosystem.

 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/article-tech-leaders-ready-launch-of-canadian-social-media-platform-gander-to/

How many warnings do you get on that Canadian platform before they freeze your bank account?

[Why_Me]

14 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

What are we expecting to actually be different about this one though? Is there any reason to believe it won't just become either an overly moderated or under moderated craphole? (genuine question!)

It's Canadian. It's going to be 2021 Twitter all over again.

[MC.Morrado]

A canadian app sounds interesting. Just wish it didn't have any connections to tech bros in my country.

[Westingham]

1 hour ago, Holmes108 said:

What are we expecting to actually be different about this one though? Is there any reason to believe it won't just become either an overly moderated or under moderated craphole? (genuine question!)

Hard to say at this point, only way to find out is when the service actually launches. I remain optimistic.

[saintlouisbagels]

On 6/23/2025 at 1:30 PM, Holmes108 said:

What are we expecting to actually be different about this one though? Is there any reason to believe it won't just become either an overly moderated or under moderated craphole? (genuine question!)

Has there existed an over-moderated platform yet? All of the sites are cesspools of bots, AI slop, and OF fan pages.

[Holmes108]

7 hours ago, saintlouisbagels said:

Has there existed an over-moderated platform yet? All of the sites are cesspools of bots, AI slop, and OF fan pages.

 

Overall platform? Not sure, but I'd say facebook has at times (Covid comes to mind), and some subreddits are (imo of course). Either way, I certainly at least believe it's possible to be over moderated in theory, and if anyone is capable of it, Canada is.

 

The UK has shown it's possible, now that I think about it (If you want to call the police 'moderators' lol. But I fear this is starting to get too political).

 

Edit: But at the end of the day, what I think is most likely is that it'll just be the same as the rest. A meaningless blip, or if it somehow gains traction, it'll be just like the rest.

 

[Vishera]

Just another Twitter clone but with a Canada first pitch...

That's gonna be an epic failure.

[Vishera]

3 hours ago, rilanglin said:

That being said, I do like the idea of the Canada-only network option. At least from a privacy and data control perspective, that's a step in the right direction — assuming they actually deliver on it.

Privacy in a Five Eyes member country?

[TudorF]

Anything that contributes to decoupling from US megacorps is useful.

But if it's done roughly similarly, it might not create much interest. You have to come up with a new model that covers the old features too.

I'd be more interested in some kind of fediverse model, in which multiple participants would create their own servers/pods and have some decentralised storage and unique content.

Also I dislike centralised moderation, I think users should moderate what they want to see themselves. Only things that are flagrant breach of law should be auto-moderated.

It's going in the good direction, though.

[williamcll]

How are they going to monetize?

[Commodus]

On 6/27/2025 at 1:04 AM, williamcll said:

How are they going to monetize?

Ads, but it sounds like Gander isn’t going to be leaning on data targeting as much as the incumbents. And of course it won’t be as self-promoting as the Meta or X platforms.

[Salted Spinach]

Its good to have country specific platform to discuss internal affairs without noise from the outside

 

Further fragmention of the Bluesky userbase is also welcome

[TetraSky]

Gander ? 
Man, that sounds so close to Grinder...

 

In any case, I don't see this working out. Too many social media platform out there. Too much fragmentation. 

[Touch My Hamm]

Unless the social platform addresses issues known or unknown to innovate and draw people to it, the platform will simply fail like many social media platforms before it. 

[StDragon]

On 7/7/2025 at 10:52 AM, Touch My Hamm said:

Unless the social platform addresses issues known or unknown to innovate and draw people to it, the platform will simply fail like many social media platforms before it. 

In the case of Myspace.com, it was the copious amounts of hot-pink and lime-green mixed togeather along with obnoxious glitter that did it in.

...maybe it will make a comeback

[IkeaGnome]

6 minutes ago, StDragon said:

In the case of Myspace.com, it was the copious amounts of hot-pink and lime-green mixed togeather along with obnoxious glitter that did it in.

...maybe it will make a comeback

And a 50/50 shot of a boyband playing automatically when you went to someone's profile. 

[Touch My Hamm]

20 hours ago, StDragon said:

In the case of Myspace.com, it was the copious amounts of hot-pink and lime-green mixed togeather along with obnoxious glitter that did it in.

...maybe it will make a comeback

From what I remember myspace had alot of things going for it. But its non standard layout, alot of noise in its UX, complications in getting setup, and Facebooks ability to stream info in a way that we now see in most things. posts scrolling, video scrolling, etc.