Together with public broadcasters from Canada (CBC), Switzerland (SRG SSR) and Belgium (RTBF), ZDF wants to develop an alternative social media platform to Twitter, Instagram and Co. The project should enable democratic discourse and civic engagement in digital space “apart from hate comments and increasing disinformation,” ZDF said on Wednesday.
The “research project” – as ZDF calls its project – has just started. In a so-called “Public Spaces Incubator”, “innovative building blocks for open and respectful online discussions” are to be developed and tested. The focus is on the interests of the users. According to ZDF, commercial aspects played no role.
According to ZDF director Norbert Himmler, open dialogue in society should not be left to “the major American platforms”. The project should show how public service broadcasting can “build independent and fact-based communication spaces in the digital world”. The aim is to counter hate, violence, propaganda and defamation in social media “with a public-law alternative”.
The research project is being carried out in collaboration with the non-profit organization NewPublic developed. According to ZDF information, this works with researchers, engineers and designers as well as “communities”.