In a bold move to challenge the dominance of centralized social media giants, Project Liberty has announced a strategic partnership with SOAR.com, a series of AI-powered data sharing and social networking portals created by Ancestry founder and serial entrepreneur Paul Allen. This alliance aims to provide users with decentralized alternatives that prioritize data sovereignty, local governance, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence.
A Decentralized Vision for Social Media
Project Liberty, backed by real estate billionaire Frank McCourt with a $250 million investment, is working to create a publicly accessible database of people’s social connections called the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP). The project also utilizes a cryptocurrency called Frequency, which is part of the Polkadot ecosystem.
With power increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few social media owners, such as X’s Elon Musk, the time seems ripe for decentralized alternatives to attract new users seeking more control over their digital lives. Project Liberty and SOAR’s partnership aims to provide just that.
SOAR’s AI-Driven Data Sharing Portals
Allen’s SOAR AI studio includes a Family Portal, an app he originally built on Facebook with 120 million users, which will use AI-based transcription technology to record and store a universe of family interactions. The studio also features a Citizens Portal, an easily searchable local government data service with over a million hours of transcriptions and information from city, county, and state meetings.
One of the key reasons Allen was drawn to Project Liberty is the promise that users will retain control over their data forever—a trust that was violated in the cases of Facebook and Ancestry.com after he left the company, he said. This needs to be done at the technology level, not through some terms of service agreement that can be changed down the road.
— Paul Allen, Founder of SOAR
Attracting Millions of Users
Since the creation of the Frequency blockchain, Project Liberty has attracted 1.3 million users. SOAR’s Family and Citizens portals are expected to draw tens of millions more in the future as people seek alternatives to existing all-powerful social media platforms, according to Tomicah Tillemann, president of Project Liberty. Beyond decentralization, it’s a chance to “get AI right,” he said.
Potential Bid for TikTok’s US Assets
Interestingly, Project Liberty is also a potential bidder for the US version of Chinese-owned TikTok (the so-called “people’s bid”), should the firm be forced to sell to an American owner. Tillemann reported significant activity around the TikTok application, with tens of billions of dollars pledged to be part of that effort.
At this point, we are widely seen as the leading contender for TikTok’s US assets in the event they become available. We are working with a broad range of stakeholders to ultimately migrate TikTok and its 170 million US users onto the same infrastructure we are discussing in our partnership with the Frequency blockchain.
— Tomicah Tillemann, President of Project Liberty
Project Liberty will host its first Future of the Internet Summit in Washington, DC on November 21-22, further emphasizing its commitment to shaping a more equitable and decentralized online world. As the battle for the future of social media intensifies, partnerships like the one between Project Liberty and SOAR may well hold the key to a more sovereign digital citizenship.
